Michigan Commit Tyus Battle Reopening Recruitment; Coach Says He’s Leaving Gill St. Bernard’s; Roselle Catholic, St. Benedict’s Adding Transfers
Michigan commit Tyus Battle is reopening his
Michigan commit Tyus Battle is reopening his
LSU fans surely love hearing what’s coming out of the Ben Simmons camp, while Big Blue Nation will surely use it as bulletin board material.
Either way, the LSU-Kentucky matchups in the SEC during the 2015-16 season just got a little spicier thanks to a few quotes in Nicole Auerbach’s feature on the 6-foot-10 Simmons in USA Today.
“Ben’s a little crazy in that Ben doesn’t want to play with the quote-unquote top five players in the country and win a championship,” said Liam Simmons, Ben’s brother. “He wants to play with good players, in their right great players, and go out and beat the Kentuckys and the Dukes, the North Carolinas of the world. He’d love nothing more than to go into Kentucky and beat them … rather than go to Kentucky and win a championship because that’s expected.”
Jaylen Hands has picked up offers from numerous Wes Coast schools. (Photo by Kelly Kline/Under Armour)
By SEAN MORAN
CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va. — Jaylen Hands is known as one of the best rising junior point guards on the West Coast, but now he is looking to establish his national presence.
With a strong start at the NBPA Top 100 camp, Hands is doing just that. In two games on Thursday Hands put together an 11-point, four-assist performance on 4-for-7 shooting and then followed that up with 14-point, four-rebound effort in the night session going 6-for-9 from the floor.
The No. 4 point guard in the Class of 2017 according to 247Sports.com, Hands was a popular player on June 15th when college head coaches were first allowed to call players from the Class of 2017.
“California, UCLA, USC, Florida, Louisville, Arizona, and Arizona State, sounds about right” said Hands when talking about the schools that were interested him.
Incoming Kentucky point guard Isaiah Briscoe will miss the 2015 FIBA U19 World Championship after USA Basketball announced he had suffered a concussion during the USA’s Thursday morning practice in Colorado Springs, Colorado.
“I do not have a concussion,” Briscoe told SNY.tv by text. “It was just a headache.”
Six-foot-6 guard Justin Bibbs has been added to the USA U19 World Championship Team roster in place of Briscoe.
“I feel very bad for Isaiah. He had a tremendous attitude and was one of our overall best players and one of our leaders of the team,” said USA U19 head coach Sean Miller (Arizona). “It is very, very unfortunate to see him get injured in what was really a two-on-two drill. But the good news is I know he’ll recover and be fine; the bad news is he won’t be able to play on our team.
By MATT WHITFIELD & ADAM ZAGORIA
CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va. — Thon Maker was named MVP of the NBPA Top 100 Camp, where he announced Thursday that he will not go to college during the next year and will instead graduate next June as a part of the Class of 2016.
Playing in his third NBPA Top 100 Camp, the 7-foot Maker averaged 15.8 points and 7.9 rebounds as of Sunday.
His decision, in turn, has implications for his recruitment and for the 2016 NBA Draft. The 7-foot Maker had originally been projected as a late-first round pick in 2016 by DraftExpress.com, but is no longer in the 2016 mock.
“I tried to get in the 2015 class. It just didn’t work out, so I’m going to stay,” Maker said, according to Ben Roberts of the Herald-Leader. “I’ll make it official here that I’ll stay (in 2016) and just play it out. Take my visits in November and play another year with my brother.”
BY MATT WHITFIELD
CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va. — Trae Young, a smooth and skilled Class of 2017 point guard out of Norman (OK) North High, will visit Duke on Sunday and the Blue Devils appear high on his list due to personal and basketball reasons.
“I’m heading there [to Duke] with my eyes open to everything and I’m going to listen to everything they have to say,” Young said at the NBPA Top 100 Camp here. “Building a relationship with Coach [Jon] Scheyer and Coach K has been awesome. I’m going to go there and enjoy it and have my eyes open…I’ll be heading there Sunday after camp.”
Young’s father, Rayford Young, played basketball at Texas Tech and has been helping Trae through the recruiting process.
John Calipari says he’s “not worried” about Aaron Harrison (2), who is not projected to get chosen in the NBA Draft. Credit: Mark Zerof-USA TODAY Sports
Aaron Harrison is not projected to get chosen in next week’s NBA Draft according to DraftExpess.com, but John Calipari is as loyal as ever.
“I’m not worried,” the Kentucky coach said Thursday on a conference call. “I think he’ll be drafted. And let me say this: I’ll go even further; I think he’ll be in the league for a while. And I believe that because of his ability to play multiple positions. He’s not locked into any position. (At) 6-6 and his size, everyone knows that this kid makes game-winning shots. There’s not a whole lot in the league like that let alone a guy in the draft like that. So I think he’s going to be fine. I think, again, and I’ve said this, I told both he and Andrew that we’ve got to finish this off because if we don’t, you’re going to get the undue criticism. It’s not fair, it’s not right. I’m just telling you. And it happened.”
