Madness Comes to New England

New England Recruiting Report | Thursday, October 16th, 2014

The college basketball season is officially here and that means Midnight Madness happened in college gyms throughout the country this weekend.

The defending national champions, the University of Connecticut, were the big draw, not only with dozens of top prospects from up and down the east coast but also with live coverage from ESPN.

UConn’s First Night attracted the fourth ranked sophomore in the country, Zach Brown, a seven-footer from Miami along with V.J. King, Nazi Reid, Nate Pierre-Louis, and more. The local New England contingent included the two prospects already committed – Jalen Adams and Steve Enoch.

Other top prospects in attendance included Omari Spellman, Wenyen Gabriel, Tyrique Jones, Jarrod Simmons, Mamadou Diarra, Hamidou Diallo, Sam Japhet-Mathias, Jordan Hardwick, Makai Ashton-Langford, Saul Phiri, Unique McLean, Chris Baldwin, Mark Gasperini, David Watkins, Ryan Murphy, Azar Swain, Greg Kuakumensah, and others.

Providence’s Late Night also drew a variety of top recruits along with special guest Jalen Rose, the former Michigan and NBA star turned ESPN analyst. Jermaine Samuels and Tomas Murphy were both in attendance along with Bruce Brown, Terrell Brown, Aaron Wheeler, Jordy Tshimanga, Christian Vital, Kimani Lawrence,  Hassahn French, Javon Taylor, Preston Santos, Arashma Parks, Brycen Goodine, Kenneth Araujo, and others. Out of region prospects included Ryan Fazekas, Temple Gibbs, and Simon Wright.

In Cambridge, Harvard played host to a variety of 2016 prospects for their Crimson Madness as A.J. Brodeur and Jimbo Lull joined the likes of Jagan Mosely, Seth Towns, Brandon Anderson, Andrew Platek, Grant Robinson, and Parker Julian.

Rhode Island got things going a day early when they held Rhody Madness on Thursday night and still attracted the likes of Terrell Brown, Aaron Wheeler, Chris Baldwin, Corey Johnson, Ronnie Suggs, Christian Vital, Saul Phiri, and others.