Ryan Harrow commits to NC State

Ryan Harrow (PG, 6’0″, 2010) has made it official: He’s headed to play at NC State. The Georgia star had made no secret that he liked the Pack.

Wake Forest, Clemson and Auburn were some of the other schools that were in the picture, although only NC State had offered from the ACC. Harrow is a very quick guard with excellent ball handling. He can burn and slip right through the defense, but will probably need to get stronger by the time he gets to NC State.

ACC Basketball Recruiting Roundup, 6/30/2008

Dexter Strickland

Dexter Strickland(SG, 6’3″, 2009), who has committed to UNC, has a pulled hamstring and sat out the Steve Nash skills camp.

Dante Taylor

Kansas has gotten interested in Dante Taylor (PF, 6’8″, 2009), a Maryland target. Maryland has already offered.

Noel Johnson

Noel Johnson (SG/SF,6’6″,2009), a player who has an offer from North Carolina, attended the Vince Carter Skills Academy last week. Johnson seems to be leaning toward Louisville.

Andre Dawkins commits to Duke

Duke has gotten back into the recruiting news with a commitment from Andre Dawkins (SG,6’5″,2009), from Chesapeake, VA. Maryland, Virginia Tech and Clemson had also offered Dawkins.

Dawkins has been a lifelong follower of the Duke Blue Devils and said he felt comfortable with them. Not surprisingly for Duke signee, Dawkins can shoot from deep.

Duke Basketball, Jamil Wilson and the saga of Daniel Orton

Jamil Wilson (SF,6’6″,2009) can play. He’s one of the best power forwards in the country, and has interest in several programs, including Duke, although from this article from the Detroit News, it appears that it may be a two horse race between Michigan State and Indiana. It does not appear that Duke extended an official scholarship offer, so for now it looks like Wilson may be playing elsewhere.

John Wall will cut his list

Rivals.com is reporting that John Wall (PG,6’4″,2009) will be cutting his list down soon.

Daniel Orton and Facebook

One of the more interesting developments in the recruitment of Daniel Orton (C, 6’10”, 2009), a player who has pretty much eliminated the ACC schools from his list, is when Orton apparently went on Facebook and raved about Kentucky. It has seemed for a bit that Orton has been a Kentucky lean, but more interesting is that Orton said he was attempting to convince UNC commit John Henson (SF, 6’10”, 2009) and Duke commit Mason Plumlee (6’11”, PF, 2009) to pull out of their commitments and come to Kentucky as well:

This is what was posted on Facebook:

Hey, i promise this is the real Daniel Orton. i joined this group looking for help recruiting a few players to UK with me. John Wall, John Henson, Mason Plumlee and Terrence Boyd. I feel with atleast two of the guys along with me we can bring in the 8th national title to UK. John Henson and Mason Plumlee i know have already committed. Im working on pulling them out of that. I feel though with the UK fan support we can bring these guys all to Kentucky.

Players have been known to say this kind of thing from time to time, trying to work package deals to play with their pals, and it won’t happen. But it does seem like Orton is a lock for Kentucky at this point. Of course, there’s no way to know right now without asking Orton if he really posted this.

Meanwhile, Bill Cole calls Plumlee a big player with small player skills.

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C.J. Harris cuts his list to three

C.J. Harris (PG/SG, 6’2″, 2009) has cut his official list of schools to three. From his high school coach Andy Muse:

“CJ Harris has informed me that he will play in the ACC and that all other schools are off of his list. At the present time VA Tech, Clemson and Wake Forest are still in a dead heat in CJ’s mind.”

A special thanks to Coach Muse for the confirmation.

Tyreek Duran, interested in Miami Hurricanes

Meet Tyreek Duran (G, 6’2″, 2010), a Pennsylvania player who plays for powerhouse Philly school Neumann-Goretti. Alex caught up with him and found out that one school he is considering is Miami:

NB: Have all three of those schools offered you a scholarship?
TD: Not yet, . . . so far I haven’t [received an offer]. I think Miami is supposed to offer me a scholarship.

NB: Miami-Florida or Miami-Ohio?
TD: Florida.

Duran later states that his ‘dream school is Georgetown, but of course dream schools often are not the final destination. Not sure if Frank Haith has come to see Duran play. Is it possible Duran could play some basketball in south Florida?

Kenny Boynton lists Duke, Georgia Tech and…

Scout.com reports that Kenny Boynton is getting ready to take his visits. But they are also reporting that Boynton’s list includes Georgia Tech.

He has reasons for ending up at all five schools on his list.

Meanwhile, Manny Atkins (SG\SF, 6’5″, 2009) is going to Virginia Tech. I haven’t seen Manny play much but maybe he will be playing in the GBOA South this weekend.

ACC Basketball Recruiting Roundup; 6/24/2008

And now…Roger Franklin
A player we’ve not discussed so far is Roger Franklin (6’6″, SF, 2009), a Texas player who has offers from Virgina and Indiana (among several others), told Rivals.com that Georgia Tech has been recruiting him heavily.

Franklin is an extremely smart solid player, who has a great game in the paint and plays good defense. He’s very strong and his shot is decent. Really, Franklin will be a solid get for whichever team lands him. It has been said that Indiana has a good shot at him. Stay tuned.

Maryland, meet Sterling Gibbs

Alex has an interview with Sterling Gibbs (PG, 6’1″, 2011), a player who’s grown a little since he first came on the radar and whose brother will play for Pitt next season.

While Sterling says Arizona is his ‘dream school’, someone let Gary Williams know that he’s interested in Maryland.

Wake Forest Basketball Recruiting

So what has Wake Forest been up to after getting a good 2008 class? Even though Wake has no 2009 commits yet, they are actually recruiting several players we’ve mentioned before: Tristan Spurlock (SF,6’6″, 2009), C.J. Harris (SG,6’2″,2009) , Dominic Cheek (6’6″, SG, 2009) and Kenny Boynton(PG, 6’2″, 2009).

Wake is going head to head for several of these recruits with ACC coaches – most notably Boynton, who is likely Duke’s top target for the 2009 class. It seems likely that C.J. Harris will strongly consider the Deacs, as he plays his high school ball only a few miles from the Wake campus. And Cheek recently said Wake Forest was in the mix.

Add in another player: Ari Stewart (SF, 6’7″ 2009) who apparently likes the Deacons but also has offers from North Carolina and Clemson. There is a chance he could play for Wake, but he also may stay in Georgia if he were to get an offer from Georgia Tech.

Mfon Udofia tears it up at the NBPA Top 100

Virgina and Georgia Tech target Mfon Udofia (PG, 6’2″, 2009) has apprarently been setting the world on fire at the NBPA Camp this week:

Rising high school senior Mfon Udofia, one of Virginia’s top guard targets for the class of 2009, looked like an Energizer Bunny — one who had just downed about 10 cups of coffee.

Virginia is tying to use this week’s camp in Charlottesville to gain favor with the highly rated point guard, who is thought to be favoring Georgia Tech. Udofia goes on to mention that he likes the idea that people compare him to Rajon Rondo. Mfon is also considering Wake Forest and Miami.