Recruiting Round-Up 7/9
Just a couple days away from the initial July live period where coaches all over the country will be on the road to personally watch their top targets for 2013 and years beyond. Iowa State has several scholarship spots open for the 2013 class, however after securing their top 2 targets in Matt Thomas and Monte Morris there are not too many that know where the coaching staff is now leaning in the final scholarships they will award. Details on who they may make a priority are likely to come out this July and you will want to stay tuned here for all of the latest on where the coaching staff is and which players mention the Cyclones.
Scout, Inc. and Rivals released their latest 2013 and 2014 rankings this past week, here is a quick rundown of where players of interest stand. In the Rivals 2013 Top 150 Iowa State commits Monte Morris and Matt Thomas came in at #79 and #104 respectively. When asked about Thomas, Eric Bossi of Rivals indicated that he was never able to watch Thomas and therefore only pushed him as high as he felt comfortable without personally watching. Bossi hopes to watch Thomas during the July live period and if the performance goes well we may see Thomas in the top 100 when the next rankings are released. Other 2013 players within the Top 150 that have Iowa State offers: 89) Terrence Samuel, 92) Jaylen Brantley, 118) Byron Zeigler and 120) Kyle Washington. Scout, Inc. released their new Top 100 in the 2013 class, Monte Morris ranked #65 and Matt Thomas ranked #78 there with Kyle Washington (Iowa State offer) coming in at #82. In the 2014 rankings by both Rivals and Scout, Inc. Iowa State as a host of offers out to some of the top kids in the nation. In Scout’s 2014 Top 75: 5) Tyus Jones, 13) Chris McCullough, 17) Rashad Vaughn, 21) Jared Terrell and 31) Isaiah Whitehead. In Rivals 2014 Top 100: 5) Tyus Jones, 12) Chris McCullough, 13) Isaiah Whitehead, 20) Rashad Vaughn, 31) Jared Terrell, 66) Abdul-Malik Abu, 94) Khadeen Carrington and 98) Clayton Custer.
On to the recruiting news of the past week.
2014 SG Rashad Vaughn received his latest offer last week from Syracuse and in an interview with Evan Flood mentioned that he hopes to visit Baylor, Iowa State, Wisconsin, Miami, Syracuse and Kansas yet this Fall before he narrows his list. Vaughn has previously visited Iowa State and the idea that he wants to visit again may put Iowa State is a good position for the top 25 talent.
2013 PG Terrence Samuel told Josh Paunil that Pittsburgh is the school that is recruiting him the hardest right now and that he still plans to make visits to UConn, Rhode Island and Pittsburgh as three of his five officials. With Iowa State already securing up two guard in the class it would appear that they have cooled on Samuel, so don’t be surprised if Iowa State does not end up in his final five.
2013 PF Ted Friedman of Ankeny, Iowa chose the Northern Iowa Panthers to play collegiate basketball on Friday (his birthday). Friedman has received interest from Iowa State, Iowa and a few others along with his offer from Northern Iowa.
2014 PF Chris McCullough in an interview with NBESports listed Syracuse, St. John’s, Arizona, UConn, Temple, Miami & Kansas as schools he was most interested in. However, he followed that up with a statement to me that he remains wide open in his recruitment and that list is by no means a favorites list. Iowa State has offered the unanimous top 25 talent and has been in the mix the whole way. McCullough does plan to narrow his list sometime this Fall, perhaps as soon as August and his AAU coach has mentioned Iowa State as a candidate to make that list.
A host of Michigan players have the eyes of the Iowa State coaching staff according to interviews by Steve Schwanda on Sunday at a warm-up event. 2013 SG Martez Walker has an Iowa State offer, but indicated that Rhode Island and Missouri State are the two schools that are showing the most interest right now. 2013 PG Denzel Watts told Schwanda that Florida State, USC, UNLV and Alabama-Birmingham and the schools he is hearing from the most. And another Flint, Michigan point guard says he has heard from the staff too. 2013 Richie Lewis (Northern HS) says he has heard from South Alabama, Arkansas State, Penn State, Iowa State and Oakland among others.
The latest news out of Michigan though is with 2013 point guard E.C. Matthews who listed four schools that are his favorites (article) going into the summer include Indiana, Iowa, Iowa State and Minnesota. Indiana is the only school that remains on this last from his previous article in early May where he listed Arizona, Indiana, Xavier, Virginia, Rhode Island and Oregon as teams that stood out to him. Iowa State has made a recent push on Matthews, being one of the first to contact him after the open period began on June 15. As of a week ago Iowa State had not yet offered, but was only showing strong interest. Matthews has also received interest lately from Missouri, Virginia Tech and Illinois too. An attempt to confirm the latest has not yet been returned. Matthews is currently attending the LeBron James Skills Academy out in Las Vegas, NV.
ADDITION: E.C. Matthews has now stated to multiple sources that despite the article he has no favorites at this time, saying ”I think they got mixed up.”
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[...] permalink Here is another round-up from this morning that touches on all of the latest in the past week, includes information on Rashad Vaughn, Chris McCullough, E.C. Matthews and a host of others… Recruit Lists Recruiting Round-Up 7/9 [...]
[...] that despite the article he has no favorites at this time, saying ”I think they got mixed up Recruit Lists Recruiting Round-Up 7/9 Yep, would be nice to be in a top list of his [...]