Friday, September 26, 2008

Hoops Recruiting - Big Weekend Coming

This weekend could very well be one of the most important recruiting weekends of the year for Paul Hewitt. As you may know, Hewitt and his staff have secured verbal commitments from four outstanding high school players:

Glen Rice, 6'4" SF, from Marietta GA
Mfon Udofia, 6'1" PG, from Lithonia GA
Kammeon Holsey, 6'8" PF from Sparta GA
Brian Oliver, 6'6" SF from Virginia

This weekend, we will be hosting the following guys are their official visits:

Derrick Favors, 6'9" C, from Atlanta GA
Kenny Boynton, 6'2" SG from Plantation FL
Mfon Udofia, 6'1" PG (will be his official visit)

Just the four guys already committed were enough for Rivals.com to rank Tech as the #4 class in the nation. If they added Favors, who many consider the best player in the country, it would certainly move them into the top 3. Add Boynton as well (highly unlikely though), and it very well could be the #1 class.

So this weekend becomes a crucial one to slam home this recruiting class. It's generally believed that Favors wants to stay "close to home", although the last reports I saw had his final 6 down to GT, UGAg, FSU, Memphis, KY and UConn.

There are some unconfirmed reports that some NBA players who happen to be former Georgia Tech players, just might be on campus as well. At the end of the day, on a visit like this, particularly when there is no home football game, you need to pull out the stops. I am sure some of the current commits will be there as an unofficial visit as well.

Here is some Favors highlights for your mass consumption



As far as Boynton goes, here's my advice - if he commits to Georgia Tech, consider it a complete and utter shock. I'm not saying we're out of the picture. It's no accident that Favors and Boynton are there together the same weekend. However, Boynton has been uber-targeted by the weasel, and coming off the glow us his Olympic rat cheese, Coach K has to be considered the front-runner to get this guy. If you want to read a long, interesting article about Boynton's recruitment, ESPN had this interesting story from a week or so ago.

Boynton is basically a offensive scoring machine who has no fear unleashing a shot under any situation from anywhere. If he goes to Duke, we'll be glad when and if he's one-and-done. He's going to be tough to handle for anyone.

Here's Kenny in action: