James Padgett to play basketball at Maryland

Just a few days after Maryland received good news regarding center Steve Goins, they get another win:James Padgett (PF,6’8″,2009) has given a verbal commitment to the Terps:

Padgett, who transferred to Lincoln from Xaverian, said he chose Maryland over the University of Pittsburgh. He said the Panthers were not able to offer him as much playing time because they had just signed two players at his position.

Big time pickup for Gary Williams.

Steve Goins officially joins Maryland basketball

Good news for Terp fans, Steve Goins (C, 6’10”, 2009) has been deemed eligible to play by the NCAA clearing house.

ACC Basketball Targets

Two players we added over the summer as ACC targets and should have mentioned before now: Harrison Barnes (SF, 6’6″, 2010), with an offer from Duke in hand, and DeMatha’s Victor Oladipo (SF), who has an offer from Maryland, Virginia, Clemson and Virginia Tech, among others. No word yet on who might have the inside track.

Under the Radar: Rodney Blount

To be honest, it’s a little surprising that Rodney Blount (PG/SG, 6’0″, 2009) isn’t listed on any of the major recruiting sites, despite having played at the 2008 Reebok All American Camp and regularly training and working out with Mr. Reebok Pump himself, former NBA player Dee Brown.

Blount has the size to play guard at the college level, can handle the ball and shoot. A skilled combo guard, Blount is apparently completely under the radar with only a couple of schools really following him. He’s got good court awareness as well, and plays his high school ball at Ocoee High School in Ocoee, FL. A player that could play for a lot of schools, but hasn’t gotten the looks he should be getting.

With looks from American University and Brevard already, he’s also interested in Alabama, Ole Miss,Auburn, FSU, UCF, Jacksonville, Villanova, Maryland and Michigan.

Here is some video of his solid play:

Updates on Maryland’s Class of 2008

To say that Maryland’s incoming recruiting class is somewhat different than what Terp fans expected a few months ago would be an understatement. A true assessment here is that Gary Williams is hearing some unhappy rumblings, the team never won as much as expected last season and a lot of the players who helped in Maryland’s biggest win of the season – a win over UNC in Chapel Hill – are gone.

To put it bluntly, Gary needs to get a team together that will remind people why he’s a hall of fame coach before people start wondering how the heck he won a national title. And to be fair to the Maryland fans, Gary’s performance after his national title run hasn’t been anything like the way his teams played before their championship.

So here’s the latest on the incoming class:

Sean Mosley, a solid and reliable shooting guard, has been cleared by the NCAA Clearinghouse to play ball.

Steve Goins, a much needed big man and a late season commit, has been admitted to Maryland, despite conflicting reports that he might not have even picked a college.

Jin Soo Kim, a class of 2009 SF, will almost definitely be able to reclassify as a Class of 2008 player and there is a good chance he’ll be playing for Maryland this season.

Doron Lamb to Oak Hill; Zanna an ACC target

It seems pretty clear at this point that Doron Lamb (PG/SG, 6’4″, 2010) will play the 2008-2009 basketball season for Oak Hill Academy, and Alex has a bit of info that backs that up. Lamb is one of the top guards in the Class of 2010 and will probably get a lot more ink before he makes his decision.

Josh Selby, Talib Zanna
Meanwhile, another top guard from the class of 2010, Josh Selby (PG/SG, 6’2″), had the odd misfortune of playing basketball really well at the wrong time. Selby poured in 25 for DeMatha in a game after the NCAA open evaluation period, doing scoring battle with Rashad Whack (SG, 6’2″, 2009) and Talib Zanna (C, 6’9″, 2009). Clemson and Virginia Tech are in the mix for Zanna, who is somewhat under the radar but can score the ball. We are adding Zanna to the ACC Targets list.

And now, finally, some good news for Maryland fans

Jeff Ermann of TurtleSportsReport.com is reporting that Will Regan (C, 6’8″ , 2010), not only has an offer from Maryland, he has the Terps at the top of his list, and may be a package deal with Terp target Taran Buie (PG, 6’0″, 2010):

Regan’s teammate on the Albany AAU squad is touted 2010 combo guard Taran Buie, who is also one of the Terps’ top prospects in the class. According to Regan, when he informed Buie about his Maryland offer, Buie told him, “Just say the word and we’ll play together.”

I wouldn’t put that down as a lock, but it is encouraging after the off season that Maryland fans have gone through. Regan also has an offer from Virginia Tech.

Terrell to Wake Forest, Taylor goes with Pitt

J.T. Terrell (SG, 6’3″, 2010) ended his recruitment by announcing that he wants to be a Demon Deacon. Wake Forest basketball recruiting has had a good month, after getting C.J. Harris a couple of weeks ago.

Meanwhile, as expected, Dante Taylor (PF, 6’8″, 2009) passed on Maryland to take an offer from Pittsburgh. This is disappointing although all signs pointed toward the Panthers, especially after reports had recently talked up Dante’s stellar play.

Terps to add a big man, shore up 2008

Gary Williams needs inside players in the worst way, and it was no secret that there was a good chance that Maryland wasn’t done for the Class of 2008. Now it appears that Maryland has at least gotten some interior help coming in Steve Goins (C, 6’10”, 2008), a recruit who can score the ball.

Can’t help but wonder if Maryland won’t try to bring in another body in this class. They lost scoring and inside play with the recruits who decided to bail, and Maryland already was thin with the graduation losses. What’s really worrisome is the situation with Sean Mosley, a really stable player who hasn’t gotten through the NCAA Clearinghouse (which, in case you were unaware, is to whom that college athletes in DI or DII must submit their “core” class high school transcripts and standardized test scores).

That might just be a blip on the radar for Mosley, but is magnified when Maryland is having so much misfortune with their other recruits.

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.

Scouting Daniel Orton

Okay, I am going to let out a secret weapon I have. I have a friend who follows basketball recruiting and even maintains his own player database. Whereas I like to keep up with players coming to the ACC, he likes to scout players and can really spot good players. I like to think that I can spot a good player (probably after someone else mentions them), but I don’t maintain my own database.

Anyway, the reason I am mentioning this is because I’ve convinced him to share notes on one ACC target. I am hopeful that he will post some more of these himself in the future. These are his notes on Daniel Orton (6’10”, C, 2009), who has been offered by Maryland and reportedly was being recruited by Duke and UNC at one time.

At any rate, here is his current scouting report for Daniel Orton. This is a dump right out of his database, not really a polished write up.

Daniel Orton Scouting Report

One of the best big men in the Class of 2009. Orton is a big, strong post player who likes to play center. I’ve seen him listed at 6’9”, 6’10”, and 6’11” all within the past year. He’s an excellent shot blocker and can hit from 10-12 feet consistently. Some reports say he can shoot the three, but I have watched him three times and have never seen him take a deep shot, so I don’t know if he can shoot it from behind the arc or not. He will need to be more physical in college and use his strength to mix it up more persistently. He runs the floor, but doesn’t really run ahead of the break at this point. This does not mean he couldn’t; it just doesn’t seem to be a habit yet. He does not really run down to the front of the rim so he can receive the transition pass under the basket. However, he is not a big stiff, he has good hands and can actually push the ball up the floor if he needs to on the break, although once he gets to college that probably won’t be often. He has an agile, loose gait as he runs the floor and looks like he could really take off at any moment. I’ve seen him handle the ball well in transition, but I’ve also seen him have trouble getting to the rim to finish.

A pretty good rebounder, he really is a presence in the lane and even gives other big men problems. He’s extremely disruptive on defense, being a patient player, deflecting passes and blocking shots. He watches the play develop and seems to have the ability to always swat the ball away, making points in the lane hard to come by. He gets more than just shots, he also swats away a lot of passes. He really frustrates any attempts by the opposing team to get anything going in the paint. He’s a position rebounder as opposed to a timing rebounder, meaning he gets rebounds by taking up space and holding his place, often getting flat footed rebounds.

Orton can get up around the rim, but not a sky walker either. A good size to play the post in college, but likely will could play some power forward in the pros. Should be a solid college player and has the ability to really excel. He has shown flashes of brilliance, even taking the ball full court and slashing into the lane, but those plays are offset by the plays where he just drifts out and doesn’t engage.

Orton can pass the ball, but even though his passing is decent, sending zipping passes, he has a habit of passing in into traffic under the basket. That said, he doesn’t just wildly throw the ball away, either. He knows how to clear space to catch the pass in the post but often he will settle for the short jumper instead of using the drop step against slower defenders. He does look to pass the ball inside often, something even a lot of guards struggle to comprehend. Orton does understand the concept of passing the ball in for a higher percentage shot. Unfortunately, it would be nice to see Orton take the ball more on his own to get points and not settle for a tough pass or jump shot. Sometimes it seems like he should take the ball to the hoop and doesn’t, while other times he will take it in even though he’s being triple teamed. He does have a decent hook shot, which he says is one of his favorite moves.

One of the knocks on Orton is that he has a tendency to take plays off, and that has been true in the games I’ve seen this year. Sometimes he looks great and then other times he kind of just disappears. This could be a combination of conditioning and his own tendencies, but even in games where he was going against much less skilled big men he would either come on strong or fade out for a few minutes. He’s good enough that in these games he still gets some points, but not as many as he should.

Orton has shot free throws well when I’ve seen him.

Sign Up for the ACC Basketball Recruiting List (Secret Sauce Edition)

So I’ll get to the point: I come across a lot of information and not all of it can go into the blog. Sometimes, it’s because there is so much going on that there just isn’t time to add it, and I don’t like making multiple posts in a day if I can help it.

Other times, it’s because I pass along rumors and I only want to pass those along to people who are savvy enough to understand that.

The ‘Secret Sauce’

Sometimes I send out recruiting updates, player evaluations or analysis to people who are interested in the basketball recruiting in the ACC. Sometimes I might come across some cool magazine or video. This list is for hardcore fans and recruiting junkies. You might say it’s for people who are looking at what makes up the ‘secret sauce’ in the next national college basketball powerhouse, or the next NBA phenom.

To sign up, click here.

Don’t forget that when I release the 2008 ACC Basketball Recruiting Yearbook, I will be sending it to people on the list free of charge. It’s scheduled for release by the end of June 2008.

My guarantee about getting Magic Johnson to personally meet everyone on my list is still valid.