Elijah Thomas, Jawun Evans Talking About Playing Together

PHILADELPHIA — Team Texas Elite teammates Elijah Thomas and Jawun Evans continue to talk about potentially joining forces in college.

“It’s on our mind, that would be a good thing for us to be playing together since AAU started, so it would probably be a good thing,” the 6-foot Evans told SNY.tv after he and Thomas helped take down a Diamond Stone-led team at the Reebok Classic Breakout.

Evans is the No. 5 point guard in the Class of 2015, according to 247Sports composite rankings, while Thomas is the No. 11 power forward in the class.

Malik Newman Lists Five Schools for Package with Diamond Stone

By MIKE GRIMALA

Special to ZAGSBLOG

LAS VEGAS — Even at an event as loaded with talent as the LeBron James Skills Academy, Malik Newman still manages to stand out.

The 6-foot-4 guard is a consensus top-three player in the Class of 2015, and he showed off his innate scoring ability on Wednesday during the first day of workouts at the LeBron camp in Las Vegas.

Newman didn’t step on the gas pedal too frequently or try too hard to take over the action. Instead, the Jackson, Miss. native let the game come to him and flashed the inside-out scoring ability that has made him one of the most coveted recruits in the nation.

2016 Star Derryck Thornton Says He’s Done With Summer Visits

By JOSH NEWMAN
Special to ZAGSBLOG

PHILADELPHIA – Derryck Thornton visited both Kentucky and Michigan last month. No matter what happens during the all-important month of July, Findlay Prep’s 2016 star guard doesn’t intend to step foot on another college campus this summer.

“I’ve only been to two campuses this summer [Michigan and Kentucky] and I think I’m done taking visits for the rest of the summer,” Thornton said Wednesday evening at the Reebok Classic Breakout at Philadelphia University. “Both visits were great. I thank God for what he’s doing for me because without him, I wouldn’t be here. Everyone is doing a great job right now.”

Thornton is a consensus Top-10 player in the Class of 2016 who was named MVP of the recent Steph Curry Camp  in the Bay Area and also won the title at the NBA Top 100 Camp.

He played Wednesday night in front of Kentucky head coach John Calipari, Michigan head coach John Beilein and UConn coach Kevin Ollie, among others. Those were just three of a slew of high-major coaches who flocked to the court to watch a game that included 2015 big men Skal Labissiere and Diamond Stone. 

Five Key Storylines for the July Recruiting Period

Juice up the rental car and make sure that GPS on the dashboard is working.

The July recruiting period is here!

College basketball coaches will be criss-crossing America over the next three weeks in the hopes of landing players who can help their programs win games and, ultimately, capture NCAA championships.

Beginning at 5 p.m. Wednesday, an army of college coaches will descend upon Las Vegas, Philadelphia and Chicago for the Nike, Reebok and Adidas camps.

“1st official day of recruiting. Starts at 5 pm. So excited to see a lot of future Orange!” Syracuse assistant Mike Hopkins Tweeted.

“Couldn’t sleep last night — first day of recruiting” N.C. State assistant Orlando Early Tweeted.

As we head into July recruiting, here are five key storylines to keep an eye on as the month unfolds.

1. Where will Cal be?