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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Top Ten 2009 ACC High School Basketball Targets

These are my current top ten players who have either been contacted by an ACC school, offered a scholarship by an ACC school or committed to an ACC school. The ACC schools that are in the mix are in parenthesis next to the player’s name. This does not mean that ACC schools lead for these players OR that the order of listings is indication of a leader among the schools.

1. Derrick Favors, 6’9” C (Clemson, Duke, Georgia Tech, North Carolina, North Carolina State)

2. Xavier Henry, 6’6” SG (North Carolina)

3. Kenny Boynton, 6’2” SG (Duke, Wake Forest, Georgia Tech, Florida State, Miami)

4. John Wall, 6’3”, PG (Clemson, Duke, Florida State, Georgia Tech, Miami, North Carolina, NC State, Virginia)

5. Dominic Cheek, 6’6” SG (North Carolina, Miami)

6. Daniel Orton, 6’9” C (Maryland, Wake Forest)

7. Dexter Strickland, 6’3” SG (Committed to North Carolina)

8. Jordan Hamilton, 6’7” SF (North Carolina State)

9. John Henson, 6’10” PF (Committed to North Carolina)

10. DeShawn Painter, 6’9” PF (Clemson, Florida State, NC State, Virginia)

A notable exception here is Lance Stephenson (6’5” SF), who is #2 on many rankings and is often tagged as being a UNC target. I am pretty much of the opinion that UNC is not actively recruiting Stephenson, so until I see or hear otherwise (send me a link if you’ve got something), I am dropping him from my list of ACC targets. This moves Xavier Henry (who I think is leaning towards Memphis and Kansas over UNC) into my #2 spot, and introduces target DeShawn Painter into the top 10.

I also am not adding DeShonte Riley (6’10” C) to the mix even though he’s listed Boston College as a possible school. I kind of like DeShawn Painter a little more at this point.

These rankings may change as I get to see more of these guys, either in person or on video.

UPDATE, 7/1/208:After I posted this back in May, 2008, there have been a lot of changes and commitments. So if you want to keep up when the player DB comes online, click here.