Marques Bolden to Visit Kansas, Kentucky
Marques Bolden, a 6-foot-10 power forward/center from
Marques Bolden, a 6-foot-10 power forward/center from
De’Aaron Fox is down to seven schools, but he sure sounded optimistic about Kentucky during this interview with Jonathan Givony of DraftExpress.com at the USA Junior National Team minicamp in Colorado Springs, Colo.
Fox was asked if he and Malik Monk could potentially coexist at the same school — Kentucky is recruiting both lead guards and both will visit campus Oct. 16-18 for Big Blue Madness — and he seemed enthusiastic about the possibility.
“Oh yeah I do [think we could play together], we’ve talked about it,” Fox said. “We were in the Bahamas together. We were there for a couple days together. We talked about the recruiting process. It’s not set in stone that we’ll go to the same school but it’s a possibility.”
Tom Izzo added the latest piece of a potentially fearsome recruiting class on Saturday when Michigan native Miles Bridges committed to the Spartans at Mott Community College in his home town of Flint, Mich.
The 6-foot-6 small forward out of Huntington (W.V.) Prep also considered Kentucky and Indiana. Bridges is ranked the No. 3 small forward in the Class of 2016 by 247Sports.com and the No. 12 overall prospect.
Michigan State now has the No. 1 recruiting class in 2016, according to Scout.com, jumping Duke and Kentucky.
Izzo’s class now has four players ranked among the top 47 players in the nation, according to Scout. Shooting guard Josh Langford is No. 19, point guard Cassius Winston No. 28 and center Nick Ward No. 47. Bridges and Winston are close friends and AAU teammates.
“When he committed, then I basically switched over to Michigan State from Kentucky,” Bridges told Scout.com. “At first I thought Cassius was going to Michigan. When he went to Michigan State, it changed everything.
“I just started hanging with him when AAU started,” Bridges said about Winston. “But it feels like I’ve known Cassius for all my life. We connect like brothers.”
Former Louisville basketball player and graduate assistant Andre McGee hired strippers and prostitutes to perform for Louisville players, recruits and, in some cases, the recruits’ fathers, according to a new book called “Breaking Cardinal Rules.”
The book, published by IBJ Book Publishing, is set to be released as soon as Saturday, according to the Indianapolis Business Journal.
Here’s the Journal’s summary of the story:
The book tells the story of Louisville stripper and escort Katina Powell. She claims she was hired repeatedly by former University of Louisville basketball staffer Andre McGee to provide strippers and prostitutes during the campus visits of highly sought high school basketball players—and in some cases their fathers—as well as then-current Louisville players. The book names players involved.
McGee, who played for the Cardinals from 2005-2009, was a Louisville graduate assistant for two years before being promoted to director of basketball operations in 2012. McGee left the school in 2014 to take an assistant coaching job for the University of Missouri at Kansas City.
In her book, the 43-year-old Powell said she provided entertainment for 22 parties from 2010 to 2014, many at Billy Minardi Hall, an on-campus dormitory for many Louisville basketball players. The dorm is named after Louisville men’s basketball coach Rick Pitino’s brother-in-law, who was killed in the 9/11 attacks in New York.
At the parties, a number of women—including Powell and three of her daughters—stripped and danced in front of the Louisville recruits and players—as well as performed sex acts with them, said Powell.
At those parties, Powell said, high school-age recruits were offered alcohol by McGee, who also arranged additional payment to her and her dancers if the recruits wanted to have sex with them.
Isaiah Briscoe was voted the “biggest trash talker” in the country in a USA Today poll last spring.
In April, he told me he was ready to take on Carmelo Anthony in one-on-one.
The former Roselle (N.J.) Catholic guard will never lack for confidence, but don’t expect Kentucky coach John Calipari to endorse Briscoe’s trash-talking once he takes the court as a Kentucky freshman.
“He won’t play that way here,” Calipari told reporters in Kentucky. “I’m not worried about it. He’s going to be fine. This stuff that we do here, you don’t have to add any fuel to the fire. You don’t have to say anything. You talk with your game because every game you play is someone’s Super Bowl.”
Briscoe is one of three talented point guards on the Kentucky roster, sophomore Tyler Ulis and Canadian sensation Jamal Murray being the others.
Deng Gak has only been at Blair (N.J.) Academy for about a week, and yet already the big-time schools are passing through to check the big man out.
Duke assistant Jon Scheyer, Florida assistant Darris Nichols, SMU head coach Larry Brown and Northwestern head man Chris Collins have stopped in to see Gak, a 6-foot-11 big man who was born in Egypt but lived almost his entire life in Australia. Minnesota is expected in Friday.
“Deng is a very skilled and versatile big who proceses the game at a high level and has already at age 17 played on the global stage,” Blair coach Joe Mantegna said. “He is one of the highest-upside guys we have ever had at Blair. As importantly, he is a high-character, good teammate who comes from an academically-oriented family as well. The sky is the limit as he gets stronger, more assertive, and adjusts to the different way the game is played in the U.S.”
Following a busy week in which college coaches criss-crossed the country to visit with their priority recruits, many of of those recruits will hit the road for visits.
Here’s a rundown that will be updated over the weekend. For more detail on any player, click the embedded link near their name:
**N.C. State has a huge weekend on tap as they host committed 2016 point guard Dennis Smith Jr. and are also expected to host 2016 studs Edrice “Bam” Adebayo, Udoka Azubuike and Rawle Alkins, as well as 2017 prospects Matt Coleman, Devontae Shuler and Derek Culver. N.C. State hosts Louisville in football on Saturday afternoon.
**Louisville will host 2016 forward T.J. Leaf and 2016 guard Andrew Jones, as well as 2017 prospects D.J. Harvey and Davion Mitchell, according to Scout.com.
*Indiana has Paul Scruggs, Zach Gunn, Kevin Easley and Jaylen Sebree.
**Following a big week in which they landed Shamorie Ponds and visited Thon Maker, St. John’s will host Mitch Lightfoot, a 6-foot-7, 200-pound 2016 forward from Gilbert (Ariz.) Christian High. Lightfoot has also visited Kansas, Utah and Stanford and will trip to Arizona Oct. 10.
