ESPN Recruiting Nation Basketball

This week’s Friday notebook includes all the latest news and notes from the basketball recruiting world, including how a recent commitment impacts Florida’s recruiting plans, final thoughts on Andrew Wiggins, recruiting updates from last weekend’s Dallas Nike EYBL and much more.

To continue reading this article you must be an Insider

DALLAS -- Big D played host to the third Nike EYBL session of the spring, and the nation’s top talent was on full display, highlighted by the mega-point guard showdown between Tyus Jones and Joel Berry. Also making waves were ESPN 60 wings Justin Jackson and Daniel Hamilton, who committed late Saturday night.

Here were 10 things I learned from the Dallas EYBL.

To continue reading this article you must be an Insider

Prior to the spring, junior Chris Chiozza (Memphis, Tenn./White Station) was mentioned as a fringe Top 100 player. Following a series of standout performances, Chiozza’s stock soared. On Tuesday, he accepted an offer from the Florida Gators to follow the point guard lineage in Gainesville.

Ohio State and Memphis provided the most competition for the 2014 defensive guard with a passing bend. Chiozza averaged 17 points, nine assists and six rebounds as a junior.

Florida, which scouted Chiozza extensively in April, offered, and the guard didn’t mull it over too long before calling his recruitment off.

To continue reading this article you must be an Insider

DALLAS -- The third installment of the Nike EYBL is in the books. After spending two days at an incredibly over-the-top facility (please build one in Raleigh), it’s time to sift through the notes and analyze what we saw. We’ll follow-up with more coverage of the loaded event later, but he’s a quick rundown of the highlights.

• Top-ranked junior Jahlil Okafor played extended minutes for Mac Irvin Fire this weekend for the first time since suffering an spring injury. At times, Okafor was dominant and he won the head-to-head bout with his pal Tyus Jones.

To continue reading this article you must be an Insider

The long wait is finally almost over. Andrew Wiggins (Thornhill, Ontario/Huntington Prep), the No. 1 recruit in the Class of 2013, will announce his college decision at approximately 12:15 p.m. ET Tuesday.

Wiggins is down to Florida State, Kansas, North Carolina and Kentucky. During the long course of his recruitment, each team has at various times seemed like the front-runner and the dark horse. Not only has his decision come down to the wire, it also appears to be a photo finish.

To try to make some sense of it all on the eve of his decision, we’re here to handicap the race, complete with why Wiggins would and wouldn’t pick each school and our unofficial final odds on each program’s chances of landing him.

Florida State Seminoles
Odds of landing Wiggins: 35 percent

To continue reading this article you must be an Insider

The Xavier Musketeers scored a big, fat commitment on Sunday from a promising 2014 point guard nicknamed “Skinny.” Three-star prospect Edmond Sumner (Detroit/Detroit Country Day), a 6-foot-2, 160-pound junior, pledged to Chris Mack’s program over UMass.

The Musketeers targeted Sumner last summer and locked in on him well before he hit the 150-pound mark.

To continue reading this article you must be an Insider

ESPN 60 small forward Trevon Bluiett (Indianapolis/Park Tudor) is playing with a ton of confidence on the travel team circuit. It makes sense that he would be out there getting things done in the spring because he said playing AAU and travel ball is the most rewarding thing he’s done in basketball.

“Nothing gets better than this, and it’s more competition here than in school ball,” Bluiett said. “If I wasn’t playing travel ball, I wouldn’t be the player I am now.”

The player he is now is a mixture of guard and forward wrapped in a strong, college-ready body. He used to just be a shooter, but now he’s doing a little bit of everything -- and just in time because here come the scholarship offers.

Bluiett is a priority recruit for Butler, Michigan, Indiana, Purdue, DePaul and Cincinnati. Notre Dame is also calling to get back into the mix. When that phone rings from Brad Stevens or Butler assistant Michael Lewis, Bluiett is picking up quickly these days. Ditto for calls from Michigan assistant LaVall Jordan, who, by the way, is a Butler graduate. As a result, there are solid odds that a Butler man gets to coach this kid.

Then again, Bluiett credits travel ball with helping him see that the world is a little bigger than a car ride to college. “Being away from home all the time, that already helps you with college,” he said. “That way distance won’t be a factor.”

What will be a factor are relationships. And simply by the terminology Bluiett uses to describe those relationships, you can tell he’s serious. “The right school has the player-coach relationship, and I’d say that player-player relationship as well,” Bluiett added.

Bluiett’s recruitment will definitely be one to watch. Here are some more news and notes and updated offer lists from the basketball recruiting world:

To continue reading this article you must be an Insider

Spend enough time on the high school basketball circuit and you’ll find there are certain players you gravitate toward because you know exactly what you’re getting when you go watch them. ESPN 60 forward Kevon Looney (Milwaukee/Hamilton) is one of those guys.

Duke, Michigan State, Michigan, Florida, Wisconsin, Tennessee and Kansas are among a big pack of programs that will vie for his signature.

To continue reading this article you must be an Insider

FORT WAYNE, Ind. -- Many times at weekend travel team events, people approach me and offer their own insight into my job. Look, it’s a good gig -- don’t get me wrong. But scouts don’t look at it through the lens of one big basketball fiesta. This is work, really.

A weekend event is no different than attending a college lecture. You take tons of notes, pay attention to as much as you can and then try to make sense of what you learned so you can score well on the test.

Last weekend, my travels took me to Indiana for the Spiece Bill Hensley Memorial Run-N-Slam. Spiece is a long-running event originally started by the late Bill Hensley, whose son, Todd, has kept the event going in his father’s honor. We’re all grateful he did – it’s a fantastic event with fantastic talent.

Here were the top 10 things I learned from this year’s Spiece Run-N-Slam.

To continue reading this article you must be an Insider

ESPN 100 guard Allerik Freeman (Charlotte, N.C./Findlay Prep) is no longer uncommitted. Freeman picked Baylor over Marquette, Pittsburgh, Minnesota, Xavier and Miami on Tuesday and could have a position change in his future.

To continue reading this article you must be an Insider

The beauty of the spring evaluation period is the guys who come out of nowhere and ascend up the charts. If the first two sessions of the Nike EYBL circuit are any indication, the spring has been very good to 2014 combo guard Sandy Cohen (Green Bay, Wis./Seymour).

He’s averaging nine points and four rebounds per game and making 31 percent of his 3-pointers while running the show for the Wisconsin Playground Warriors. He hasn’t been perfect (24 assists and 25 turnovers), but he’s done enough to warrant major attention.

Coming into the spring, it was North Dakota, Green Bay and Milwaukee chasing him. After the first EYBL session two weeks ago in Los Angeles, La Salle and George Washington offered. After the second EYBL session in Hampton, Va., last weekend, he has fielded calls from Minnesota, Auburn, Clemson and UCLA.

“I had a few good games and people liked the way I could handle the ball and I can shoot,” Cohen said. “I’m trying to go high-major, that’s my dream.”

The kid from Green Bay Packers country is in the big time now, and he likes what he sees.

“This is nothing like I’ve ever seen before,” Cohen said. “This is high-level basketball. Where I’m from it’s nothing like this. We don’t get full-court pressure, nothing like that.”

Here are some other recruiting updates on EYBL stock risers:

To continue reading this article you must be an Insider

With Wednesday’s release of our final ESPN 100 for the Class of 2013, the player rankings for the basketball recruits in the current senior class can finally be etched in stone.

Although every rankings update throughout the year is full of difficult choices because you always want to ensure you have recruits ranked in their proper spots, that’s never truer than with the final update for a class. After all, these are the rankings that will live on, not just for months but for years and, sometimes, decades.

With that in mind, here were the 10 toughest decisions our ESPN staff faced in making our final update to the 2013 ESPN 100.

1. What to do with the center position

To continue reading this article you must be an Insider

HAMPTON, Va. -- The second session of the Nike EYBL rolled into Virginia over the weekend sporting some of the best high school hoop talent in the country. Top-10 talents from the junior, sophomore and freshman classes like Tyus Jones, Cliff Alexander, Justise Winslow, Ivan Rabb, Skal Labissiere and Harry Giles were among the heavyweights on display.

Here were 10 things I learned from the Hampton EYBL.

To continue reading this article you must be an Insider

We’re smack in the middle of the spring travel team evaluation period. While the weekend warriors pack up and head to the hot spots for travel team events, college coaches hop on private planes to see the elite players.

Wednesday was the final day programs could conduct in-home visits with underclassmen. So we tracked down some of the big-time college coaches and found out what they were up to on the final day of the in-home visitation period.

To continue reading this article you must be an Insider