Derrick Favors picks Georgia Tech

One of the top high school prospects in the nation for the class of 2009, if not the top prospect, is big man Derrick Favors (PF, 6’9″, 2009), a player who everybody wanted, not the least of which Georgia Tech, NC State and Florida State. All signs seemed to point to Favors staying in state for what might be a one-and-done college career, and now he’s chosen the Yellow Jackets as his college destination.

Georgia Tech Basketball Tickets

This year, Georgia Tech has been under the radar, and needs to combine the talent they have to see if they can overcome inexperience. The issue seems to always be the same for Paul Hewitt; he recruits a lot of big time talent only to see the players jump to the league before they even break a sweat. Georgia Tech still has the skills to make some noise, and they have even a little extra incentive this season, since the ACC Tournament will be in Atlanta.

Get Georgia Tech Yellow Jacket Tickets Here.

Of course, there are tons of great ACC match ups for Georgia Tech, but looking at the schedule, one game that stands out is a home game against in state rival Georgia, who everyone thinks is the main rival for top big man Derrick Favors (PF, 6’9″, 2009). Any doubt that Favors will be in attendance for that game? I think not.

Harrison Barnes Gets Big Looks

Being one of the best high school basketball players in the country is a progression, and when you are junior and you are a rising star, the scrutiny ramps up quickly as you head into your ‘rising senior AAU summer’.

Consider what’s going on with Harrison Barnes (SF, 6’6″,2010), who UNC and Duke are both recruiting (along with UCLA, Kansas, Kentucky and Florida), who recently had several big name coaches watching him play:

Kansas’ Bill Self, Stanford’s Johnny Dawkins and hometown hope Greg McDermott were in attendance. Barnes holds two dozen scholarship offers already.

Meanwhile, Justin Young has a nice writeup to help catch up on Derrick Favors and other Georgia related hoops.

Derrick Favors to visit NC State

Derrick Favors (PF, 6’9″, 2009), many scouts’ top player in the class of 2009, has long included NC State as a possible destination, even including them in his final list. Now Favors will take an official visit to the Wolfpack’s campus.

Despite stating many times that he would wait for his official decision until the spring, Favors is still removing teams from consideration:

The tentative timetable is for Favors to eliminate one school by the end of this week and another by the end of the following week

This still could come down to Georgia versus Georgia Tech in the spring, but the Pack has a good chance to convince Favors to continue to list them.

ACC Basketball Recruiting Roundup

Jamil Wilson (SF/PF, 6’7″, 2009) eliminates the ACC, and according to Scout.com, he’s cut his list to Oregon State, Marquette, Texas and Michigan State. Wilson had at one time listed Duke as a possible destination, but did not receive a reported offer and Duke is no longer an option. Thus, we’re no longer tracking Jamil as an ACC prospect.

Trae Golden

Trae Golden (PG/SG,6’1″,2010) the player who de-committed from Ohio State over the summer, seems to have completely fallen out of touch with the Buckeyes, but has Georgia Tech, Clemson, Wake Forest and now Virginia Tech following his recruitment. Kentucky has also been in the mix for Golden. North Carolina and Florida State have also been mentioned as possible options.

Clemson and Georgia Tech have reportedly already offered Golden, as has Kentucky.

Ryan Kelly

Rumors abound that Ryan Kelly (PF, 6’10”, 2009) will make a decision this week.

Elijah Johnson cuts list

Elijah Johnson (PG/SG,6’2″, 2009) is another player cutting his list and had eliminated the ACC some time ago, but we’re making it official as he’s trimming his list to Kansas, Texas and Oklahoma.

Derrick Favors, Derrick Favors

Has Derrick cut his list to five. His recent comments to Alex sure seem to indicate it:

Georgia Tech, Georgia, Memphis, North Carolina State, and Florida State

If you didn’t spot the missing school…it’s Kentucky. In fact, Favors tells Alex that reports of him considering Kentucky are inaccurate.

As always, if you’re a college basketball fan who can’t get enough of this stuff, sign up for the email list.

The New Basketball Recruiting Blog

We come across so much basketball recruiting information that it’s sometimes hard not to talk about players and events not related the ACC. Rather than try to create a blog for each conference, we have launched the Basketball Recruiting blog, which is plain-jane in name and hopefully stuffed with basketball recruiting content. Today we discuss top point guard John Wall’s basketball recruiting status, and share a little video to boot.

What’s that, you say? John Wall info belongs on the ACC recruiting blog, since he lives in NC and list the Wolfpack? Sure, but we’ve written about Wall a lot already, and readers of the new blog are also interested in Mr. Wall. However, we still have some ACC basketball recruiting news to pass out, so here we go:

Talib Zanna goes to the Big East

Talib Zanna (C, 6’9″, 2009) seemed like a Pitt lean for a while, but a few people hoped Virginia or Virginia Tech might convince him otherwise. Alas, it was not to be and he’ll be playing for the Panthers in the Fall of 2009.

Wake Forest visiting Cheek

With the on-campus visits getting most of the press these days, we kind of forget the old standby of the in-home visit. Lest we forget that Wake Forest is in the mix for sharpshooter Dominic Cheek’s services, Adam Zagoria mentions that Wake will be visiting Cheek on Wednesday.

Harrison Barnes

The next great recruiting battle is answering to the name Harrison Barnes (SF, 6’6″, 2010), who holds a ton of offers, including Duke, UCLA and Kansas and UNC’s Coach Roy Williams has watched Barnes play.

Derrick Favors

So Derrick Favors (PF, 6’9″, 2009) has cut his list to six, and now he’s just returned from a visit to Georgia Tech, and it sounds good for the Yellow Jackets:

“Georgia Tech, of course, is right here in the city, and that’s always a great thing. It would allow people around here, such as his family and his friends, the opportunity to see him play in person. And Georgia Tech has a great tradition of putting players in the NBA on a regular basis …”

Tech has been thought to be a leader for Favors, despite claims to the contrary, and Tech would love to have the big time power forward.

Michael Snaer

Finally, Michael Snaer talks basketball recruiting in this interview, in which he discusses his visits:

You took official visits to Missouri and Florida State prior to coming to MU. How would you compare and contrast the three visits, and what you saw on each? The whole recruiting process, it’s like they’re all saying the same things, so it’s the little things that you’ve got to bring out. And one of the real good things that attracted me to Marquette is that they just play hard. How tough they are and how hard they work.

Florida State and Missouri are bigger schools and have football teams. Basketball at Marquette, meanwhile, is the biggest show on campus. How much does the thought of being ‘the’ show at MU appeal to you? It feels good, but it really doesn’t matter to me because at the end of the day you’ve still got to win games. Either way, it doesn’t really matter to me. I’m still going to play as hard as I can, no matter what.

I really have appreciated how Snaer has handled his recruitment. He has pretty much taken his visits as planned, and seems to be doing his best to really evaluate each school. It’s only one of the biggest decisions of his life, after all.

Melvin Tabb

Even though we dropped Talib Zanna as an ACC target when he committed to Pitt, we’re adding Melvin Tabb (PF, 6’8″, 2009) to the tracking list, with an offer from Clemson and a recent visit to NC State. He’s actually been contacted by a few other ACC schools as well.

Durand Scott Basketball Recruiting Update

Durand Scott (SG/SF, 6’5″, 2009), a player who you might have seen recently playing in Rucker Park has a list of eight schools, including some ACC colleges.

Alex recently interviewed Scott, who confirmed his list of eight, including a ‘mystery’ school:

“UCLA, Tennessee, UConn, Memphis, Virginia, Miami, . . . Xavier [and] . . . [Pause] I can’t remember the last one . . .”

Shortly after this interview, Scott cut his list to five, eliminating Virginia and Xavier, but keeping Pitt (which Alex correctly guessed as the mystery school).

So, Scott’s current list still includes Miami.

More on Derrick Favors

I also wanted to follow up on a story we recently shared about Derrick Favors (PF, 6’9″, 2009), where the Atlanta Journal-Consitution reported that Favors was listing six schools. Favors was not actually quoted as saying that he had eliminated anyone, but it is important to note that Connecticut was also listed. Many services have UConn as completely out of it, so for now it seems like a bit more mystery.

Derrick Favors narrows it down

Basketball recruiting’s top prize for 2009, at least by some opinions, is Derrick Favors (PF, 6’9″, 2009), and several programs have been anxiously waiting for him to start cutting his long list of potential schools.

Looks like the rumors that Georgia and Georgia Tech are the teams to beat still will be around, as Favors new list includes both the Bulldogs and the Yellow Jackets, as well as Kentucky, Memphis, Connecticut and Florida State.

It seems like Georgia Tech is the likely place for the probable pro player, but some schools, like Georgia, have been recruiting Derrick for some time.

Derrick Favors Update

Alex caught up with big man Derrick Favors (PF, 6’10”, 2009), where he talks about the current thinking that he might stay in the state of Georgia, and whether he will be one-and-done:

NB: How long do you plan on going to college for?
DF: Hopefully for a year, for one year, but if I have to do two, three, [or] four [years], I’ll do it.

Favors is echoing the common idea now that if you can blow up enough in your freshman year, or your sophomore year, you make the leap. Florida State, NC State and Georgia Tech are all still being listed by Derrick, and it looks like even though Duke attempted to get involved, that seems not to have materialized…although it’s important to note that Duke’s Coach K and much of the Duke assistant coaching staff have been focused on the Olympics over the summer period.

ACC Recruiting Roundup, Volume 2

Alex has an article on Wake Forest basketball commit Tony Chenault (PG/SG,6’1″,2010), where the scorer talks about his recent commitment to the Deacs:

“[It’s a] great school. They [are] known for producing great point guards like Chris Paul. They let their players play . . . [and are in] one of the best conferences in the country,” said Chenault as to why he picked Wake, an ACC power in the 21st century.

Thanks to Alex for the heads up on the future ACC player.

Derrick Favors cuts his list

Derrick Favors (PF, 6’10”, 2009) has cut his list to ten schools, and both Georgia Tech and NC State are still in the mix. Popular opinion seems to be that GT is still the leader, but Favors has not publicly said that.

Dexter Strickland Dunks Away Critics

The Adidas Nations camp takes current high school prospects and pairs them with an “NBA Mentor” during the camp. Not sure if Dexter Strickland, who played the camp after a somewhat light summer schedule was paired with former Carolina players Antwan Jamison or Raymond Felton (both of whom are repped by Adidas), but he was able to answer some of his critics with the camp highlight dunk. To be fair to Dexter, the critics are foolish in this case; Dexter is getting knocked because he chose to rest after an injury, did not play a heavy summer schedule and since he was MIA from the big time events, his stock supposedly slipped. That is laughable and hurts the credibility of a ranking system that pulls that stunt. It’s an old GM joke about a scout who’s favorite player is always the last player they saw.

Anyway, here’s a pretty good rundown of the Adidas event.

Kyrie Irving has ACC interest

You might have heard about Kyrie Irving (PG/SG, 6’2″, 2010), and you might have known that he plays for the same high school team as Dexter Strickland, and maybe you even knew that he had a whole bunch of interest from the Big East. But you probably didn’t know that he also has interest from Maryland, Virginia Tech and UNC.

Irving is officially on our ACC watch list.

Dominic Cheek’s List

Dominic Cheek is expected to announce a preliminary college list in September, and Wake Forest appears to be right in the mix.