Early Signing Period Arrives
Wednesday marked the beginning of the early signing period, the first of two opportunities that 2013 prospects have during the year to sign their National Letters of Intent, contractually binding them to the school which they had previously only committed to verbally.
The next week promises to be a very busy time in New England as 17 of the top 25 pre-season players in New England are expected to sign NLI’s. Here are a couple of story lines to keep an eye out for:
• Fresh off his verbal commitment to Indiana last weekend Noah Vonleh is now expected to sign with the Hoosiers this week;
• Wayne Selden will officially sign with Kansas on Friday at 6:45pm at the Shelborne Community Center in his hometown of Boston;
• Brewster Academy is expected to have four players sign this week in Kyle Washington (NC State), Elijah Macon (West Virginia), Ron Patterson (Syracuse), and John Edwards (New Hampshire);
• Butler will officially announce their arrival in the local recruiting scene with signatures from two of New England’s top local products in Rene Castro and Andrew Chrabascz;
• Castro will be joined by two other top local guards in Dayshon Smith (Dayton) and Kahlil Dukes (USC) in signing this week;
• The feel good story of the early signing period will be Garet Beal’s NLI to the University of Maine, keeping the local product close to home for the next four years;
• The Ivy League does not use NLI’s and so those prospects who have committed to Ivy League schools will not be signing this week;
• Division III commitments also do not sign NLI’s meaning there is essentially nothing binding about their commitments;
• Biggest under-the-radar signing might be Denzel Gregg to Fordham. The STM forward was a sleeper that the Rams were all over;
• Our top three steals of the early signing period go to Vermont (Kiefer Douse), Wagner (Greg Senat), and Drexel (Mohamed Bah);
• The National Prep Showcase tips off this weekend and the timing allows the best available prospects the chance to show their talents to college coaches.