Wednesday, July 21, 2010

Signs of the 2010 Off Season #1 -- Where in the World is...

Ogo Adegboye? -- St. Bonaventure's returning point guard was named to Great Britain's National Team in June and play in the Eurobasket Tournament that begins August 8. Adegboye will return to the Bonnies in September and resume his studies in the fall semester.

Lavoy Allen? -- Temple's rising senior forward is in Las Vegas, invited to join the USA Select Team that will help prepare the USA National Team for the World Basketball Festival, a four-day series of exhibitions, August 12-15, in New York City. The National Team will also play a series of exhibitions the following week -- two games in Spain (August 21 & 22) followed by a third game, versus Greece, in Athens, Greece, on August 25. The USA National Team is scheduled to compete with 23 other teams, in the FIBA World Championship for Men, to be held Aug. 28-Sept. 12 in Ankara, Istanbul, Izmir and Kayseri, Turkey.

Eric Devendorf? -- The former Syracuse wing spent his first year as a professional in New Zealand where he helped his Wellington Saints team win the NZBL Championship on July 1. Devo then signed with the Melbourne Tigers of Australia Basketball. The Tigers are taking a preseason tour through Europe and China before starting their season in October. One of their European stops will be Ireland where they are scheduled to play the Pittsburgh Panthers on Friday August 6. Some things never change.

Pico Dulce? -- The Blogger-in-chief for The East Coast Bias and columnist for The Johnny Jungle's "Calm Before the Storm" series is in Chicago, putting together off season roundtables about the Big East -- check out Roundtable #2, Part 1 here. Parts #2 and #3 to follow. Pico also penned an excellent possession-based comparison of Steve Lavin's UCLA teams with those of Norm Roberts' St. John's teams. One of the better reads this summer, required reading for those who are wondering where Lavin will take the Johnnies next season.

Jason Donnelly? -- The Villanova assistant coach has been on the recruiting trail this month. That trail led through Morgantown, WV last weekend, where West Virginia University hosted the West Virginia Jam Fest where he caught a game or two of 2012 prospect Ricardo Ledo and 2011 prospect Alex Murphy (son of Boston College player Jay Murphy).

Ray Floriani? -- The veteran basketball writer and statistician is logging another summer in the Hamilton Park summer league, refereeing games in Jersey City, New Jersey, and filing reports with the folks at Hoopville and College Chalktalk.

Markus Kennedy? -- Good question actually. The Villanova commit has decided to do a prep year, the question is...where? A return to Winchendon Prep is out of the question, which leaves one of the two remaining candidates, Brewster Academy (NH) and NIA Prep (NJ) as the most likely destination. Given that AAU teammate Naadir Tharpe is Brewster's pg, the New Hampshire Academy may have the inside track.

Kevin McKenna? -- The three year head coach at Indiana State resigned June 14 to take an Assistant Coaching job on (newly hired) Dana Altman's staff at Oregon. McKenna becomes the fourth "below the Red-Line" head coach to take an "above the Red-Line" assistant coaching job this off season.

DJ Newbill? -- The Philadelphia guard (Strawberry Mansion) was set to enter Marquette in Milwaukee, Wisconsin in September, but the Big East school abruptly withdrew it's scholarship offer to make room for Jamil Wilson, a rising sophomore sf and Wisconsin native, who transferred out of Oregon at the end of the 2010 season. Newbill is headed to Hattisburg, Mississippi, wher he will enroll in Southern Mississippi and play the point for Larry Eustachy's Golden Eagles. Despite the uncertainty (and change of venue) Newbill will be a Golden Eagle next season after all.

Reggie Redding? -- Villanova's all-purpose wing/forward went undrafted after a number of tryouts, including one with the Philadelphia 76ers. The Villanova graduate celebrated his 22nd birthday (July 18), by signing to play for Intercollege Etha Engomis in the Cyprus A Division, and will head over to Cyprus to play for them next season. Congratulations Reggie and Happy Birthday.

Scottie Reynolds? -- Villanova's #2 All-Time Scorer went undrafted in June, but has been in Las Vegas playing NBA Summer League games for the Phoenix Sun's team. The guard may well sign with that NBA club, according to Arn Tellum, his agent. Scottie was ranked #8, with 4.7 assists per game in Summer League action.

Pitt Panthers? -- The Big East team hit the gym this week, running a series of supervised practices in preparation for their summer tour of Ireland, July 29 through August 9.

Maalik Wayns? -- Villanova's rising sophomore guard is staying in Philadelphia working out on campus (taking summer classes?) and playing summer ball with teammates Dominic Cheek, Maurice Sutton, Antonio Pena, Isiaih Armwood, Corey Stokes, Mouphtao Yarou and the Wildcats' newest walk-on player, Dallas Ouano, in the Hank Gathers Division of the Sonny Hill League. The games, normally played in Temple University's venerable McGonigal Hall, have been moved to Charles Audenreid High School, 32nd and Tasker Streets in Philadelphia. Rumors have Cheek, Wayns and Yarou scoring a lot of points in their games so far.

Chris Wright? -- The rising senior forward joined A10 conference mate Lavoy Allen, Las Vegas. Wright was also invited to join the USA Select Team and help prepare Team USA for the FIBA World Championships to be held later this summer.

Jay Wright? -- Villanova's head coach is in Las Vegas working as a Co-head Coach of the USA Select Team, along with Washington's Lorenzo Romer. The USA Select Team, co-coached by Wright and Romer will help prepare the USA National Team for the FIBA World Championship. Five Big Ten players were invited to join the team, the largest number of any D1 conference. Two players, Scoop Jardine and Kemba Walker will represent the Big East.

Joseph Young? -- Providence's incoming freshman guard says he does not want to go to Providence after all. Citing an ill aunt, Young's father has requested a release from his son's NLI, which to this point, Coach Davis has refused. Unlike the much publicized Walter Pitchford-DePaul standoff (which was resolved late last week when DePaul formally released Pitchford), which was triggered when DePaul fired Jerry Wainwright, the coach Pitchford had signed on to play for, the coaching change that may be the motivator for Young's request occured at the University of Houston, where the elder Young was rehired by the Cougars' new head coach, James Dickey. If Young (the younger) does indeed ignore the NLI and go to Houston, he will have to pay his own way and sit the first year and lose a year of eligibility.

2 comments:

Brian said...

Great work on this blog... and way to put me (and pretty much everyone) to shame on the ECB Round table with some seriously in-depth analysis.

As for the Sonny Hill league, it may not be notable for your readers, but new junior walk-on, Dallas Ouano has also been playing in the Sonny Hill.

greyCat said...

Thanks for the nod Brian, also for the heads-up about Dallas Ouano. Good to know he is competing in the Sonny Hill this summer. I will update my post. Dallas, who worked as a member of practice squad last season, looks like a good addition to the squad. Hopefully he will see a few minutes of PT this season.