Recruiting and the 'net

Recruiting, the 'net, publicity -- all can weave a ying - yang tangled web.

Example #24573:

Alex Kline's (The Recruit Scoop) Twitter account has this from one hour ago:

"Shooting Guard Jabari Brown '11 is denying a rumor that he has cancelled all of his visits & will commit to Arizona State this weekend."

We haven't a clue on the accuracy/inaccuracy of this matter but someone, especially under the age of 18, having to deny something posted somewhere just seems bizarre.

More Max Hooper updates

Former Valley Christian three-point shooter Max Hooper is spending a prep year at Brewster Academy and here are the latest Brewster tweets on his recruiting status:

"Brewster postgraduate Max Hooper will take an unofficial visit to Minnesota this weekend"

and

"Max Hooper will host Lehigh for a school visit on Thursday"

Chris Brew to NYC

After playing his initial season at UC-Santa Barbara, Chris Brew (St. Mary's High) faced a tough choice. Return for his sophomore year or go full-fledged into a modeling career that was primed for a mjaor takeoff.

He chose the latter and is now based in NYC.

Here is an Los Angeles Times feature involving Kobe Bryant and Chris. Here is more on him.

Jeremy Russotti's SAC Town event

This coming weekend (October 2 and 3), Jeremy Russotti is holding his Sacramento Valley's Finest training event. The most appropriate message to offer is if you aren't going to be there, then you aren't serious about improving your skills set.

From Jeremy's site:

The idea for the "The Finest" Showcase events came about by Jeremy Russotti with the vision for a more positive, beneficial, and true grassroots basketball events in areas that were overlooked. Back in 2001-2002, two of coach Russotti's former players received basketball scholarships to the PAC-10 Conference. Ironically, both of them were never invited to any local or national so-called "exposure events"; overlooked mostly because of the area they resided in. At that point, Russotti knew a quality showcase event could really help draw needed attention to any area, resulting in more recruting resources for top local talent. More importantly, he realized the importance of INSTRUCTIONAL SKILL TRAINING vs EXPOSURE and the impact it had on his player's future recruitments. Therefore, the main focus of the event will be on skill building (6 total hours), with the added bonus of 4-5 games of evaluated exposure games.

Not only will the event be endorsed by various scouting services, but also will include a report written by 1% CLUB Basketball that is emailed to over 1,700 coaches at the D2, NAIA, National JUCO and California JUCO programs (free of charge). Says camp director Jeremy Russotti, "We really take pride in spreading our message about individual skill building and how it can really drive your future recruitment process. The success of Josh Akognon, has really come full circle, backing our message that was started five years ago. Also, there is a lot of talent in the Sacramento Valley region that various colleges or junior colleges never get the chance to see or read about. Furthermore, we want to help bridge these connections, while trying to build intrinsic motivation within our attendee's to the importance of skill building in their daily routines.....and not just playing games."

The two-day event, which will be held at Consumes River Junior College, will run from 11-5:30 pm.

Go here and begin checking out Jeremy's entire site. He conducts training events throughout the state.

This is about a SoCal kid but still a fascinating read

Hey, sometimes you wonder why your favorite college team doesn't land this or that recruit or why a certain club team has the roster it does. 

High school star declared ineligible after payments revealed 
Sports marketers in China were supporting him, according to documents 
Brent Schrotenboer 
Sign On San Diego 
September 28, 2010

According to documents obtained by The San Diego Union-Tribune, a local Chinese high school basketball star has been the beneficiary of more than $30,000 in money and benefits provided by sports marketers formerly involved with Nike and Chinese NBA star Yao Ming.

Chen Cai, a 6-foot-8 player for Maranatha Christian High, has been declared in ineligible to play basketball this year as a result of an investigation into these and similar allegations. Marantha has offered to forfeit all games in which Chen played during the past three seasons because of rules violations. It is against state high school rules to receive such benefits or be recruited to a school because of athletic ability...

Go here for the remainder.

A Max Hooper update

BrewsterHoops (Brewster Academy in New Hampshire) just tweeted this about former Valley Christian hoopster Max Hooper:

"Brewster postgraduate Max Hooper will take an official visit to Harvard the weekend of Oct 22nd"

On September 24, Hooper visited Oakland University (Michigan).

An interesting item on Josiah Turner's recruitment

In response to a question, Rivals' Jerry Meyers offered some speculation (Rivals sub required) -- minus confirmation -- surrounding Josiah Turner's decision to go with Arizona. Here you go:

What impact, if any, does the potential NBA lockout have on both programs (Kansas and Arizona], which have to allocate their resources, and players, who may be looking for immediate playing time? As of now, it appears to be a relatively low-priority issue. Thanks for your input.

- Arthur from Hastings

Jerry Meyers: We might have just seen the first major example of the potential NBA lockout affecting a recruiting situation.

One line of thought on Turner's commitment to Arizona is that Turner was concerned that a lockout would result in [Josh] Selby and Tyshawn Taylor still being on the Kansas roster Turner's freshman year. If that were to be the case, Turner would likely play a reserve role as a freshman at Kansas. Arizona, however, presents a much more favorable scenario for Turner playing a lead role even if there were to be a lockout.

Again, this is just a line of thought concerning Turner. One way or another, it is an example of a scenario showing how the threat of a lockout can affect college recruiting.

Now we have no idea regarding the truth in all of the above but sometimes you get the feeling that there just might be so much more going on in a player's recruiting orbit than the average fan understands.

Jabari Brown talks about Connecticut

Mike Anthony of the Hartford Courant caught up with Jabari Brown on Saturday. Here's part of what Anthony wrote:

"...I'll say this: He's a very well-spoken kid who seems to be impressed with UConn, its history, its coaching staff and its potential. He is considering five schools: Washington (which he has already visited), UConn, Arizona State, Oregon and Georgia Tech. He will visit ASU, Oregon and GT in the coming weeks and then make a decision soon after, probably in late October. He will sign a national letter of intent in November...'

Go here for the full article.

Juan Anderson a-visiting again

Castro Valley High's Juan Anderson has packed his bags again for this weekend: Per a tweet from Alex Kline: "6'6 wing Juan Anderson of California is on an official visit to Marquette. He visited Oregon last weekend & will trip to Arizona State next."

Jabari Brown in the Nutmeg State this weekend

Oakland High's Jabari Brown will be in Storrs, Connecticut this weekend courtesy of Jim Calhoun and the Husky basketball program. This one is surprising considering the hot water Connecticut basketball is submerged in with the NCAA.

John Green visiting UC Santa Barbara

Gary Trousdale, the basketball director at Westwind Prep, just tweeted that John Green, formerly of Castlemont High, is traveling to Goleta:

   "6-6 John Green will miss tonights scrimmage. He is on official visit to UC Santa Barbara!"

Our Damon Harge article

PTW first saw a video of this young man and witnessed intriguing skills for someone so young. But we were more interested in who he was and what his family situation was like -- the story behind the story. Hopefully, those subjects were presented in the following article we recently penned:

NorCalPreps.com
September 23, 2010

Why can't the measure of our lives, even at any early age, exceed a single, simplified label? And what is it about the success of others that generates envy and animosity? Evolution notwithstanding, the need to compartmentalize remains a standard human definer while also too often does the want to witness the failure of others. Yes, 11-year-old Damon Harge Jr. is certainly a basketball phenom but also a grounded and sensitive youngster whose success engenders a minority inexplicably desiring to see him come up short.

A middle schooler at Modesto Christian School, Harge is relatively unknown. Yes, there was a recent six-minute video on him and some visits to various hoops camps but that's the extent of the media infiltration to date. Since nature abhors a vacuum, a sadly not unexpected tide of innuendo has since risen about yet "another robo-player" along with this being a redux of the "Bred To Be A Superstar" orchestration that produced Todd Marinovich.

Wrong.

Go here for the remainder.

For tape on the youngster, go here and here.

A Kyle odister update

From the Cal Poly athletics site:

Second-year Cal Poly men’s basketball head coach Joe Callero confirmed late Wednesday afternoon that...sophomore guard Kyle Odister will not be available for the 2010-11 season

Odister (Sacramento, Calif.), who averaged 7.8 points per game, shot 45.5 percent from three-point range and made 16 starts as a true freshman last season, sustained an ankle injury. Odister will return as a redshirt sophomore for the 2011-12 campaign.

The MLK Classic schedule is set

Ben Enos offers the matchups of the Martin Luther King Classic here and there are some good ones.

Tony Williams is at UC Santa Barbara

Capping our run on UC Santa Barbara hoops, we noticed that former Rocklin High backcourter Tony Williams is on the Gaucho roster. Due to the large number of players listed, our guess is that he is a walk-on at this point.