New Englanders in the News

New England Recruiting Report | Monday, July 15th, 2013

The New England Recruiting Report was on the ground to bring firsthand recaps at Hoop Mountain Super Week II, Hoop Mountain Academic All-American Camp, Reebok Breakout Classic, Hoop Group Elite Camp, BasketBull Summer Championships, and the Stars of Tomorrow Camp this week.  

But it's impossible to be everywhere, and while local products were staring at those various northeast spots, New England was also well represented at the Adidas Invitational in Indianapolis as well as the EYBL Finals at the Nike Peach Jam in South Carolina.

Goodluck Okonoboh found himself on the cover of ESPN.com’s college basketball recruiting page on Monday after seeing his face on the front page of scout.com just a few days earlier.  

ESPN’s national recruiting director Paul Biancardi wrote an extensive profile of Okonoboh, comparing his shot-blocking prowess to that of his former teammate and current Philadelphia 76’er, Nerlens Noel.  

In the same story, Biancardi also praised Sammy Mojica as one of the top under-the-radar talents at the Adidas Invitational, calling him a “catalyst” for the Mass Rivals as well as a “natural scoring guard.”

As for Okonoboh, that was just the beginning of his press clippings.  He was interviewed on live national television by ESPN.com’s senior national recruiting analyst Dave Telep and also profiled by Scout.com’s Brian Snow as one of the top overall performers at the event along with his Mass Rivals teammate Kaleb Joseph.

Joseph, Matt Cimino, and Jalen Adams were all profiled in Snow’s day three recap from Indianapolis along with New England Playaz guard Mustapha Heron.  

Joseph was also named the event’s “best facilitator” by ESPN.com’s Reggie Rankin in his recap from Indianapolis.  

While headlines were being made in Indianapolis, BABC and Expressions were both in South Carolina competing for Nike’s EYBL championship at the Peach Jam.  

Abdul-Malik Abu received national praise for ESPN.com’s John Stovall and Scout.com’s Evan Daniels alike as Stovall called Abu one of the tournament’s “hard hat specials” or hardest working players while Daniels referred to him as “one of the more improved players of the spring and summer.”