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Trigonis Tidbits:
“Jennings Arizona Bound”
(May 22, 2007)
Just a day after leading Belmont Shore to the championship game of the 2007 Arizona Cactus Classic, 6’1” junior point guard Brandon Jennings (Oak Hill Academy/Mouth of Wilson VA) announced last Monday that he has committed to Arizona – picking the Wildcats over UConn, Kentucky and USC (whom he had once given a prior verbal). Jennings is currently ranked by many media/recruiting sources as the #1 point in the nation as well as the #1 overall 2008 prospect by Hoop Scoop. At the Cactus Classic, Jennings led the tourney is scoring (28.4 ppg) including a 44 point play-off outburst versus Inland Reebok and UCLA-bound Malcolm Lee (North/Riverside CA). Jennings has always been quick on both ends of the court, crafty with the ball in traffic and an
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assassin from long-range when hot. This spring he has really elevated his game by his increased athleticism which includes both tomahawk and alley-oop dunks.
Shortly after Jennings announced for Arizona, 6’0” junior point Larry Drew (Taft/Woodland Hills CA) declared his intention to ink with North Carolina. Drew (who has been hit with injuries this spring) has seen his stock drop slightly as of late, but the talented floor-leader has the skills and the high basketball IQ to be an effective future playmaker for Roy Williams. Besides UNC, Arizona and UCLA were also on Drew’s final short llist…………… Another West Coast point guard making noise this late spring is 5’10” senior Hank Thorns (Valley/Las Vegas NV). Thorns is a quick and skilled PG with a baby face ala BJ Armstrong (former Chicago Bulls player). Kentucky, Virginia (on the verge of losing Sean Singletary to the NBA Draft), Virginia Tech (visited recently) and Old Dominion (also visited) are showing the most interest.
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Thorns will soon join two other Sin City 2007 guards – 5’11” Heiden Ratner (Silverado/Las Vegas NV/James Madison signee) and 6’2” Donte Poole (Mojave/Las Vegas NV/Colorado State signee) who have been late spring D-I commitments. Another Las Vegas native 6’4” Dana Kendrid who spent this past year as a 5th year prep at Edison Prep (Edison NJ) is an excellent athlete that is close to qualifying and is receiving interest from schools including Long Beach State. I have been telling people for a long time that while Las Vegas is a popular destination for tournaments, the local talent pool has been very underrated for quite sometime and these four players exemplify why more low-to-mid majors should make the Las Vegas area more of a recruiting priority………………
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Arizona State got great news recently when 6’7” senior sharpshooting swingman Trent Anderson (Ironwood Ridge/Tucson AZ) decided to be a Sun Devil. Besides getting a perimeter shooter the high caliber of Anderson (who is well suited for Herb Sendek’s system), Trent (a great student) was awarded a full academic scholarship by ASU, thus essentially giving Sendek a “14th scholarship” quality player for the athletic price of 13. The vastly underrated Anderson had also been receiving interest from Cal Poly, North Texas, UC-Irvine, Long Beach State and Azusa Pacific………………
6’4” junior DJ Seeley (Modesto Christian/Modesto CA) has committed to Cal, helping the Golden Bears upgrade their athleticism in the backcourt. Besides Seeley’s impressive hops, he is also a stellar defender and an excellent slashing scorer. Prior to giving his verbal to Ben Braun, DJ (now ranked #39 in the Class of 2008
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by Rivals.com) was starting to receive interest from the likes of Kansas, Texas, Kentucky, Illinois, Oregon, Villanova and Memphis…….………..Sacramento native 6’2” point guard Nathen Garth (Wilson/Dallas TX) has committed to Minnesota giving new coach Tubby Smith his first commitment as the Golden Gopher head coach…………... 6’3” junior Michael Harthun (South Medford/Medford OR) has committed to Washington State after visiting the Pullman WA campus recently. Harthun (whose HS teammate this past year was Duke-bound Kyle Singler) picked the Cougars over Oregon, Oregon State, Pepperdine and Montana…………….. 6’6” senior Jon Wills (Mayfair/Lakewood CA) has signed with New Mexico, picking the Lobos over Portland State. Willis is a “big” wing with a very accurate perimeter stroke and a very good last-minute get for new coach Steve Alford……..One of the West Coast’s and nation’s top sophomores 6’6” Jordan Hamilton has checked out of Dorsey (Los Angeles CA) and it appears that he will enroll at Dominguez (Compton CA) as early as next week. If that transpires, Hamilton (ranked #9 by Scout.com and as the #14 best soph by Rivals.com) will give Dominguez the “go to guy” the program needs to replace Illinois-signee Quentin Watkins and re-elevate the Dons to SoCal pre-eminence.
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