Decommits and Recommits

The theme of the last few days has been decommits and recommits. All the details in CSTV Bill Hodges column

Two classes later 7-footer Clarence Holloway verbals to Rick Pitino for 2007. Will it stick this time? This is the 2nd 7-footer Pitino has signed for 2007.

How about the decommits? LSU, California, Clemson and Alabama.

New verbals for: LSU, SMU.

Transfers out: Cincy

All the details in CSTV Bill Hodges column

Big News!

Many sources including ESPN report that Billy Walker, a highly touted super-athlete of the 2007 class has been admitted to Huggins State (Kansas State), but had not enrolled. He won't be eligible to play in the Fall semester, but it's not crystal clear whether he would be eligible to play in the Spring semester (if he could, it would be HUGE for Huggins). Billy Walker is very developed physically and an extraordinary athlete, and he alone could send Huggins State to the NCAA.

Meanwhile Kyle Singler, the touted Oregonian recruit will not wait for Mike Montgomerry to take over the Oregon Ducks in the spring of 2007. Instead he is about to announce his commitment between Puke, Arizona and Kansas, with UCLA, NC and Washington. Sadly Puke is the likely recipient of his verbal. A duo of Kyle Singler and Taylor King on the wing... Interesting. Apparently Coach K is not satisfied with having Taylor Queen throwing up 3s from the perimeter and wants another forward ;-)

More updates from CSTV and Bill Hodges: Visit their site for the details

Huggins gets a wing that once considered Wake and Arizona

New promising verbals for the new coaches at Oklahoma State, NC State and Iowa State

Others getting verbals: Vandy, UNLV (former Tom Penders commit), more Notre Dame, Hofstra, and various mid-majors and low-majors

A guard transfers out of Georgetown

Latest updates

The latest from CSTV/Bill Hodges:

Two decommits in the South, including a Top 100 player. Ouch for Alabama and Clemson

One top 100 verbal for Rick Stansbury beating some of the regional powers for a KY prospect

Notre Dame gets a Nash, but sadly for them, not Steve ;-)

Temple and Eastern Illinois get centers

Iona and St. Peters split a couple of teammates

find out more in Bill Hodges's daily column at CSTV

A very early verbal is as solid as ...water!

More and more coaches are finding out (the hard way) that an early verbal is a almost a guarantee that you are not going to get the player. Just ask Bobby Lutz (Michael Beasley), Ben Howland (Taylor Queen), Bruce Weber (Eric Gordon)...

Last week USC got a verbal from 6'6" rising freshman (2010 class) Dwayne Polee. And a few weeks/months ago DePaul and UConn got some very early verbals. As Tom Konchalski stated before, at that age they are not even sure what they are going to have for lunch, let alone where they want to go to college...

CSTV/FansOnly currently list seven (7) verbals from the Class of 2009 (2009-2010) season. How many of those will stick? :-)

At the moment they only list one 2010 verbal, USC's Dwayne Polee Jr.

If you are reading this story in the future, the numbers and names above will change for sure :-)

Latest updates

The latest updates from Bill Hodges and CSTV have a few more commitments but not the big names we got last week. The most high profile verbal is former DePaul commit Manuel Cass. Find out where he is heading in 2007-2008 on the Bill Hodges/CSTV site... Other teams getting verbals: Georgia, SDSU (Fisher is catching his 2nd wind it seems), Knight Tech, GW, AF, Cincy, etc...

Thanks to MSNBC "Beyond the Arc"

Thanks to MSNBC's Beyond the Arc blog for the link. Beyond the Arc is a college basketball blog at MSNBC by their college basketball editor Mike Miller, covering stories from all over the country, with links to various stories on local/regional websites/newspapers.

ESPN OTL First report: J-Mychal Reese feature

Today, Thursday October 19, at 2:30pm EST on ESPN, Outside the Lines First Report. Details and the story here.


QUOTE from the ESPN OTL-FR daily email:

Centerpiece - Diaper Dandies
According to the scouting service Hoop Scoop, J-Mychal Reese is the top rated basketball player in his age group. Reese is a superb ball handler, drives strong to the basket, and has a feathery touch from the outside. So it's no surprise that sneaker companies have been showering him with gifts, and Reese has been contacted by several colleges, including Arizona. What might be surprising is that J-Mychal Reese had just finished the sixth grade. Outside the Lines' Tom Farrey reports on the ranking and recruiting of elementary school players, followed by a discussion on the merits and social implications of such judgments

For more on this story, click http://sports.espn.go.com/broadband/ivp/splash?id=2520487

End of QUOTE


I am still waiting for someone to post a Top 25 embryos ranking ;-)