July's for relaxing -- unless you play or coach
Posted: Tuesday, July 14, 2009 11:30 AM
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Recruiting
July’s for beaches, BBQs and fireworks. Unless you’re a college basketball coach or recruit.
Then you spend the month – summer, actually – in a gym. Guess it could be worse. They could be here.
The summer tournament season began in April, but July 6 was the first day coaches could be on site, scouting recruits. More than 100 coaches hit the morning session of the adidas It Takes 5ive Classic in Cincinnati. By evening, there were 225 coaches.
Yeah, it’s quite the show.
The King City Classic (Cleveland) kicked off a few days later. Most of the nation’s top players were there, doing their thing. (That was just down the road from LeBron’s camp, in which the King did not get dunked on, Nike will have you know.) Plenty of reporters did the same. What’d they see?
For one, elite point guards.
Mike DeCourcy of the Sporting News says Brandon Knight (who wasn’t at the camp), Joe Jackson, Kyrie Irving and Marquis Teague are the four best of the bunch. Nearly every coach in attendance wants their services. (YouTube highlights videos for each can found here, here, here and here.)
DeCourcy also says Harrison Barnes, perhaps 2010’s top player, isn’t going to commit anywhere anytime soon. Barnes, a polished 6-foot-7 wing, isn’t your typical elite player, which has some speculating he won’t be a one-and-done, which would be massive for the school that eventually gets him.
Providence commitment Gerard Coleman impressed Rivals.com’s Jerry Meyer with some impressive slashing moves and defensive ability. Teague (the younger brother of former Wake guard Jeff Teague) also earns kudes from Meyer.
Baltimore players Will Barton and Roscoe Smith were the stars to ESPN.com’s Reggie Rankin.
One writer who wasn’t blown away by the talent? Seth Davis of SI. He provides details on 11 players, but isn’t convinced any of them are to-notch talent. Davis, like most recruiting analysts, prefers Michael Gilchrist, a wing from the class of 2011.
And, just when one camp ends, another begins. Coaches have already flooded the Nike Peach Jam in Augusta, Ga. After all, what else would they do during July?
