Kentucky, Indiana Get Three Each on Wooden Award Preseason Top 50 List
By JOSH NEWMAN The Wooden Award Preseason Top
By JOSH NEWMAN The Wooden Award Preseason Top
BLAIRSTOWN, N.J. — Matt Turner transferred from Trumbull (CT) High School to Blair Academy because he knew he had to step up his level of competition.
“I left after my sophomore year and came here,” the 6-foot-4, 180-pound Class of 2017 point guard told me Monday at Blair. “It was a good program and I liked the coach a lot but I just felt I wasn’t getting pushed enough and I felt I could maximize my potential when I come to Blair.”
So far, so good.
Turner is now playing alongside several other high-major Class of 2017 prospects in 6-7 wing Kodye Pugh, who transferred from Boys Latin in Maryland, and 6-11 Deng Gak, who came over from Australia.
Following Kentucky’s victory over Duke Tuesday night in the Champions Classic in Chicago, the two schools are once again leading the way on the recruiting front.
With the addition Wednesday of Arkansas guard Malik Monk, Kentucky replaced Duke as the school with the No. 1-ranked recruiting class in the nation, according to Scout.com, and the two schools now have a combined five of the projected Top 10 picks in the 2017 NBA Draft by DraftExpress.com.
All five would be one-and-dones.
Duke already has signed small forward Jayson Tatum and power forward Harry Giles, the projected No. 1 and 2 picks in 2017.
Junior college star Bashir Ahmed plans to commit in December or January and sign in the spring, he told SNY.tv.
“If not December, then January,” he said by text.
“I want to get a chance to watch these teams play and I think my decision will be easy for me to make,” he previously told JUCORecruiting.com.
The 6-foot-7, 205-pound combo guard from The Bronx now lists Cincinnati, St. John’s, Oklahoma State, Texas, Oregon and Texas A&M.
“I’m looking for a school where I’m going play right away, a school that fits my style of play and a school that is going to develop me into a great player and get me to the next level,” he said.
Ahmed has already visited Oklahoma State, St. John’s and Cincinnati. He stopped considering Rutgers and Louisville is no longer involved.
St. John’s has one commit in the Class of 2016 in Brooklyn Thomas Jefferson guard Shamorie Ponds, who is expected to sign his Letter of Intent on Wednesday, the last day of the early signing period. They are also in the mix for German wing Richard Freudenberg and 7-footer Thon Maker, who listed St. John’s among the schools recruiting him the hardest.
Bam Adebayo committed to Kentucky on Tuesday. (Photo by Kelly Kline/Under Armour)
The rich got richer on Tuesday when Bam Adebayo chose Kentucky over home state N.C. State, adding to the Wildcats already rich front court in the Class of 2016.
“I would like to announce that I’m taking my talents to the University of Kentucky,” Adebayo said on the Mike & Mike show on ESPN News as he put on a blue UK baseball cap.
“They’re a winning program, they’re just a great all-around environment. I just like the staff and I like Coach Cal.”
The 6-foot-8 power forward out of High Point Christian (N.C.) is ranked the No. 6 player in the class by ESPN.com. Kentucky already has pledges from No. 7 De’Aaron Fox, No. 23 Wenyen Gabriel and No. 31 Sacha Killeya-Jones.
The Wildcats now have the No. 2 recruiting class in the nation behind Duke, according to Scout.com.
With Alex Poythress and potentially other front court players leaving Kentucky after the season, coach John Calipari now has a slew of new options up front in Adebayo, Gabriel and Killeya-Jones to play alongside Tai Wynyard (who arrives in December) and Australian big man Isaac Humphries.
Adebayo is projected as the No. 10 pick in the 2017 NBA Draft by DraftExpress.com, but his high school coach believes he could ultimately be in the mix as a No. 1 pick.
By CHRIS BARCA
NEW YORK — St. John’s forward Ron Mvouika had much more than just basketball on his mind this weekend as the Red Storm prepared for a Monday tilt with UMBC.
Born and raised in France, Mvouika spent most of the last few days checking in with family and friends in Paris, confirming they were all safe after a stunning series of ISIS terrorist attacks in the heart of the French city left 129 dead and hundreds more wounded on Friday.
“Everybody’s OK,” Mvouika said after scoring 16 points in Monday’s 75-53 win over UMBC. “One of the explosions happened about 20 minutes away from where I’m from. I know some people that lost a lot of people.
“It touches home when you see those are the kind of places that I go when I’m back home,” he added, referring to the Parisian restaurants, cafes and concert hall that were attacked by automatic weapon-wielding suicide bombers. “I definitely had [the victims] in my prayers. I’m going to dedicate that win to them.”
The Gavitt Tipoff Games is an annual series between the Big East and Big Ten Conferences and named in honor of Dave Gavitt, founder of the Big East and basketball visionary. The series starts this year and will span eight seasons with games being played at home sites. The Gavitt Tipoff Games will be played on four consecutive days in the first full week of the basketball season.
Dave Gavitt believed that the college basketball season needed a high profile event to start the year. He had a profound and lasting influence on the sport of basketball on the collegiate, professional and Olympic levels. Gavitt was inducted into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame in 2006.
First and foremost, Dave Gavitt was a coach and he always believed in the role of a coach as a teacher and mentor for young people. He began his coaching career at Dartmouth, his alma mater, and then led Providence to eight straight postseason bids in 10 years and guided the Friars to the 1973 Final Four. Gavitt was chosen to coach the 1980 U.S. Olympic Team, which did not have the opportunity to participate because of a U.S. boycott of the Games.
