Recruiting Wars

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.

All apologies for falling behind in our updates, unfortunately there are only 24 hours in a day. Here are the latest updates from CSTV's Hodge Report.

From all those commitments, here is what has caught our cyber eye:

We fell behind in our updates and now we pay the price with all the new waves of commitments and de-commitments!

We start with CSTV's excellent Hodge Report which features free player profiles and databases of commitments by college or conference and a lot more for the sweet price of FREE :)

On the anxiously waiting front, top 20 forward Tyler Zeller is down to four schools and he will announce on Monday. Who will it be? Who will it be? Will Ole Roy get yelled at if he doesn't steal him out of the state of Indiana?

John Brady continues to bring on talented players at LSU, this time he gets a top 100 center from Texas.

The Morris Twins saga is over, at least for now, the Stewart twins Morris Twins have selected a new destination, one of the top ten college basketball programs in the country. Click on the Hodge Report story for the reveal. I don't want to spoil the surprise like an ugly bird ;-)


Other teams getting new players

Some good news for some schools as they gain new players, but some bad news for others as they lose players to academics. Come on NCAA, we all know the kids go to college to play basketball, give them a break! CSTV's Hodge Report has the details!

Tommy Amaker John Beilein lost one player who is going to "concentrate on academics". Meanwhile tough Gordon Watt is out of Purdue for the all-inclusive "off the court problems".

And while Beilein's first year at Michigan is not as smooth as he would have liked, his old school is doing just fine with Bob Thuggins-Bear as he beats his former team (if one year counts) and Pitt for the services of a forward.

Meanwhile Dave Leitao beat his former boss and coach and friend and book author Jim Calhoun for the services of a South Kent big man. And he didn't make an ...ass out of himself with assinine behavior ;-)

The Thad Matta Express is in full steam again as he grabs a 2010 guard as it had been speculated. You can't stop the Matta Train! But in a way it is sad being Thad Matta because you know that for the rest of your career you are probably not going to get a better player than Greg Oden. Poor Thad Matta???

On the mid-major front, football powerhouse (!) South Florida, Marist and UMKC add new talent to their future rosters.

CSTV's Hodge Report has the details!


The wait is over and Quintrell Thomas is leaving the Big Apple for one of the biggest college basketball programs. The Zags blog reveals his new destination. Zags blog also talks about Gonzo (Seton Hall's Bobby Gonzalez) remaining in the pool for Tyreke Evans. Can Gonzo really pull it off? Also Kevin Jones visited West HuggingsVille. This and more at the Zags blog.

Dick Hoops Weiss discusses Virginia's big center as well and talks about the Thad Matta express.

Jeff Goodman digs into the Bruce Weber recruiting mystery, even though he lost assistant Tracy Webster to Kentucky, the commitments came flying in from all over the state. He also looks at Leito's recruiting success.

New news from CSTV's Hodge Repor(t). George Mason got a Morrison, but not Ammo. Thad Matta is expected to get a touted 2010 guard on Tuesday. Who?. Other teams adding new players: Rhode Island, Central Florida (UCF), Drexel, Penn, Oral Roberts (with or without a scandal?), Duquesne gets three, and Rutgers gets a local wing.

Meanwhile Gary Williams "rebounds" another Gilchrist, while Thad Matta grabbed a top 20 2010 guard. Meanwhile a former Minnesota player makes a horizontal geographic move to Utah State. For all the details, check CSTV's Hodge Repor(t).

An update on Lance Stephenson at Zag's blog. And an update on Quintrell Thomas.

Goodman's blog takes a look at Ohio State's recruiting success. Not only did Thad Matta get a load of 2008 players, but he is making big moves in 2009 and beyond. Also recruiting updates from Rhode, Maryland and the Bonnies.

We have a lot of ground to cover since our previous updates. As always, CSTV's Hodge Report is the best source of free recruiting information on the internet!

Drama
It must be the name, another Jennings, this one committed to Maryland has now re-opened this recruitment.

Commitments
This was a good week for Ole Roy, he managed to outdo both Duke and Georgetown by beating those teams for the early verbal of a top10 2010 guard... Tubby Smith pulled a stunner, he signed Iverson! Well okay that was an exaggeration, not Allen Iverson, just a player whose name happens to be Iverson... While it's the Oregon coach Ernie Kent with the mid-west connections, it was Jay John at Oregon State who got this Chicago guard... Bob McKillop leverages his international connections to get the younger brother of a recent Saint Louis center. He's tall too... Rhode, still reeling from the Jim Harrick era, added two player for the 2007-2008 season. Hey, if you have scholarship slots open, use them! No Big Baby, no Tyrus Thomas but that didn't stop Brady from signing more top 100 players... Houston, we don't have a problem, just another JuCo! Turn it around, Tom, turn it around, Conference USA is getting tougher this year... The Bears of Berkeley grab a 2008 guard.

Also adding new players in BCS Land: Indiana, Iowa State, and Virginia Tech

More mid-majors adding new players: Vermont, Western Kentucky, Lafayette, Bowling Green, NAU, Austin Peay, Denver, and corrosively-coached SMU.

Transfers
Three D1 players are moving to Barton County Community College, and a couple more are "downgrading" to a lower level division.