Top 12 ZAGSBLOG/OVERTIME Highlights from the Jordan Brand Classic
NEW YORK -- Here are the Top
NEW YORK -- New Indiana coach Archie
John Calipari has done well in recent years recruiting forwards and big men from the New York/New Jersey area.
Kentucky has landed New Jersey products Dakari Johnson, Michael Kidd-Gilchrist, Karl-Anthony Towns and Nick Richards in the last few years, as well as guard Isaiah Briscoe.
So it made sense that Calipari was back in the area on Good Friday meeting with Moses Brown, the 7-foot-1 junior big man from Archbishop Molloy, and Naz Reid, the 6-10 post from Roselle (N.J.) Catholic, the same school that produced Briscoe.
Brown is ranked No. 6 in the 2018 ESPN 60, while Reid is No. 11. Both high school staffs said Kentucky will continue to evaluate the players this spring and summer before making an offer.
By BRIAN MAHONEY GREENBURGH, N.Y. (AP) — Phil
NEW YORK — Nick Richards and Mohamed Bamba are teammates here on the West team in the Jordan Brand Classic.
And if Richards has any say, they will be teammates next year at Kentucky, too.
“Nobody not gonna score any layups if we go to Kentucky,” the 6-foot-11 Richards told me here this week in advance of Friday’s Jordan Brand Classic at Barclays Center. “Blocking shots all day, every day.”
During his run to the New Jersey Tournament of Champions title with The Patrick School, Richards would say that he wasn’t sure what Bamba was doing recruiting-wise and that he wasn’t getting involved. Now he’s actively trying to get the Harlem native to join him.
“Of course, every day,” Richards said.
Darnell Brodie, a 6-foot-9, 270-pound forward from Newark East Side, has signed his National Letter of Intent to attend Seton Hall.
Brodie, a three-star recruit as rated by 247Sports, is currently finishing his high school career at Newark East Side High School, the same school that produced current Pirates defensive star Ismael Sanogo (Newark, N.J.). Brodie spent his freshman and sophomore years at Newark East Side before transferring to Putnam Science Academy for a year and a half and then returning to East Side in January 2017. Brodie and Sanogo played on the same team in 2013-14 when Brodie was a freshman and Sanogo was a senior.
Brodie’s addition is the latest in a successful string of local commitments to coach Kevin Willard and the Pirates that have helped the program win 46 games and make back-to-back NCAA Tournament appearances over the last two seasons.
