Recruiting Wars

Happy New Year everybody!

If you found the 2007 draft post interesting, you may like this one too!

Speculation is fun and free, so here's what two of the major draft sites have in their mock drafts for 2008:

Details at NCAAHoops Today

Maya Moore once again had a brilliant game, this time scoring 48 (yes fourty-eight) points, 13 rebounds and 7 steals and winning the tourney for her team. Her college choice is UConn and Geno Auriema. (The rich get richer!)

On the men's side, once again, the tall guards/wings of O'Dea bothered and disrupted the shorter guards of Solon. That along with Dallas Lauderdale's frustrations from the foul-line, gave the team-oriented O'Dea team the win and a 3rd place finish. Josh Scott did a good job trying to defend the bigger and stronger Lauderdale. Chris Banchero was the main offense for O'Dea. For whatever reason, Solon once again did not use 6'5" guard Akeem Owens as mucn and instead went with the shorter guys who got disrupted by the taller players of the opponent.

The battle for the trophy was between LeFlore of Alabama and Fairfax of Los Angeles. The all-around play of Ja'shon Hampton and the scoring of Chace Stanback helped Fairfax get the win. Touted Marquette-bound Nick Anderson had a quiet night.

And that concludes the first T-Mobile Invitational. According to the T-Mobile representative interviewed, they will continue this tourney next year and beyond...

*** all times PACIFIC; add +3 for Eastern time ***

The T-Mobile Invitational on VERSUS

There's also two women's games in between, so the actual start times are not exact!

*** Among the Top 100 players participating are Dallas Lauderdale (Ohio State), Nate McMillan's son Jamelle (Arizona State), Chace Stanback (UCLA), touted junior Nick Williams, and a few more.

If you find these listings useful, you can encourage this blog to continue posting them by making your Amazon.com purchases via the affiliate link here or the Amazon logos in the blog.



*** all times PACIFIC; add +3 for Eastern time ***

PREP HOOPS

If you find these listings useful, you can encourage this blog to continue posting them by making your Amazon.com purchases via the affiliate link here or the Amazon logos in the blog.

College basketball fans will shed many tears when the 2007 NBA Draft comes around. A lot of talented freshmen and underclassmen are projected to be picked in the draft. That of course doesn't necessarily mean they will come out, but usually a lottery pick or even a first round pick is hard to say no to. Strategically some players may pass on the 2007 draft because it will be so loaded with talent. The 2007 class has some talent (OJ Mayo, Kevin Love, Derrick Rose) but the talent is not as overwhelming as this year (Oden, Durant, Florida Juniors, 2006 McDonalds team)

These are early projections in mock drafts! They are by no means guarantees...


Here are two preliminary mock drafts:

Once-touted guard JP Prince has been "under the weather" since the start of the season. He is also transfering out of Arizona.

He played high school in Tennessee, so some of the obvious candidates by proximity are Memphis (already has one player sitting out - Shawn Taggart), and Tennessee.

Reported by CSTV and other sources....

Meanwhile the transfer parade continues, this time Justin Cerasoli transfers once again, Roderick Ollie has incompabilities with Mike Davis, and Sead Odzic finds a new home near his HS...

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High School Hoops - today, Thursday December 21, 2006

Latest from CSTV:
* Congratulations on Jamal Boykin for sealing his escape from Coach AMEX-land. He will play at Cal Berkeley.
* One flies away from the Texas Tech nest, a seven footer flies from St Bonaventure to Cornell, one flies away from Idaho, and a former Georgetown guard ends up at Towson.
* Dave Odom finally gets Chad Gray eligible after a mini-soap
* New Mexico and New Mexico State get a new commitment each.

*** all times are PACIFIC ***

high school hoops
* As of right now I do not know if any major Division 1 prospects are playing in this Tournament of Champions in Colorado
* On Fox College Sports and regional FSNs

530pm: Grandview vs Denver Christian on FCS (repeats at 1am)
730pm: Mullen vs Thomas Jefferson on FCS (repeats at 930am)

The Final will be shown on Fox College Sports on Thursday December 21, at 6pm, with a repeat at 1230am.

I will update the post if i find out more about this...
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*** This post will be continually updated with new listings ***

A big man transfers from USC to Nebraska according to CSTV. But USC fans must surely be happy with the way their team came back and won teh game after a horrible first half (scored just 16 points) against George Washington in the Wooden Classic in Anaheim.

UCLA-bound Oregonian super talent Kevin Love of the class of 2007 was featured in this week's Sports Stars of Tomorrow.

During that segment you will learn that his uncle is actually a member of the world famous music super group the Beach Boys! I kid you not!


Check local listings for air times or visit their website

As I have said a few times before, the smart move for Jamal Boykin would have been to escape the Duke Smug-Cloud. And he did. CSTV/Bill Hodges reports that Jamal Boykin is transfering out of Duke. Smart move! The Fairfax standout was misled by the typical BS that Coach AMEX uses to fill up the heads of potential recruits and they think Duke is some kind of paraside that will get them a max contract in the NBA. Then they show up on campus, reality hts, and he drains the life force out of them. I kid you not, a classic example was Sean Dockery! Just look into the player's eyes. The life force is drained out by Coach AMEX! Sorry Dookies, the truth hurts :-)

And now begins the re-recruitment of Jamal Boykin, presumably by West Coast teams, with the SoCals probably having first dibs, but don't discount the Pacific Northwest (Washington, Gonzaga) or Arizona or New Mexico State. As you may recall Jamal Boykin was one of the top 100 players of the 2005 class but rarely got off the bench at Duke. His move to the west coast will allow him to recover from the "Duke experience" and return to the floor and showcase his talents that got him the top 100 ranking. His year by year player profiles can be found at Scout.com.

I would like to congratulate Jamal Boykin for this move and his brave escape from K-Ville!

I am no Nostradamus, but I predicted this almost a year ago!

Meanwhile tons of games this weekend on TV. Check the comprehensive tv listings for this weekend at NCAA Hoops Today

A competitive and entertaining game, with segments of offensive explosion.

The USA Today Super 25 updated 11/28/2006, and a regional breakdown (Top 40, 4 regions of 10 teams)

USA Today has published the TV schedule of preps and high school basketball to be broadcast on the ESPN family of networks this year. USA Today ESPN schedule

ESPNU features six games, ESPN2 features three, while ESPN has the highlight game of Derrick Rose's Simeon against (you guessed it) Oak Hill Academy. Other teams featured: DeMatha, Huntington (OJ Mayo, Patrick Patterson), St. Patrick, two Oregon games (presumably Kevin Love and/or dookie Kyle Singler), and Michael Jordan's two sons. More details by USA Today.

The action begins tonight with a double-header. First Wheeler plays on ESPNU. Then Norcross of Georgia plays Oak Hill Academy (aka Basketball Factory) of Mouth of Wilson of Virginia on ESPN2.

Apart from ESPN, a number of other networks will be showcasing prep/high school games:

A guard from Georgia is transferring to UAB! Mike Davis is working on having the best all-transfer team for 2007-2008 :-)

Coming Soon: The RecruitingWars Top 10 for 2007...

Details here and at the Jimmy V Foundation website

Latest from CSTV:

The second Lord of the Rings movie, the Two Towers, widescreen, the theatrical version, just $6 on Amazon.

In what is now becoming more popular (see Billy Walker at Kansas State), spring-eligible players are increasing. Kentucky is getting a versatile Alaskan, 6'6" Ramon Harris. Tubby Smith gave Kentucky fans (and opponents) a quick scouting report on Ramon Harris during the debut of the Tubby Smith show (available nationally on Fox College Sports). In a nutshell (according to Tubby): Ramon Harris can play either the wing or the power forward, both on defense and on offense...

As I wrote a few months ago, the Duke vs North Carolina recruiting battle is entering a new phase. The Roy Williams style of play is more exciting than Dookie-ball, and this will register with recruits. It already has. Take the ACC-Big10 challenge games. If you are an up-and-coming Top 100 player, would you like to play in an exciting game like Ohio State vs North Carolina or would you like to play in a grinding slugfest like Indiana vs Duke? I have not conducted an official poll, but my guess is that the majority of players would prefer to play the fun and exciting up and down game...

This has shown in this year's recruiting class: Roy Williams got the top three players at their respective positions (Lawson, Ellington, Brandan Wright). His next two players are probably good enough to start on most other teams. And the 6th man, a top 100 player, is redshirting. Contrast that with Duke with late signee Lance Thomas along with JJ Redick-wannabe Jon Scheyer, seven-footer Brian Zoubek and touted Gerald Henderson. A very good class for any other year, but with a superloaded class like 2006, Duke has underachieved as they usually get top level talent.

Transfer week it seems! CSTV recruiting. The exodus from SoCal: two players transfer out of Pepperdine and one out of USC (redshirting shooter Sead Odzic). Tulane is losing one as well. Check the CSTV website for details.