Recruiting Round-Up

New England Recruiting Report | Wednesday, February 10th, 2016

Recruiting activity tends to slow down a bit in the thick of the winter as conference schedules tend to preclude most college coaches from getting out and hitting the recruiting trail as hard as they might like.

Ironically, things have been atypically busy in New England within the last month. Here’s a rundown of some of the recent activity.

• Brewster Academy big man Taurean Thompson has been a popular man as of late. Providence head coach Ed Cooley made the trip to see both Thompson and Alpha Diallo, who scored 34 points, in a road win at Bridgton. A day later it was Pittsburgh head coach Jamie Dixon who was in town to watch Thompson while Syracuse head coach Jim Boeheim also made the trip to Wolfeboro. Most recently, Thompson took an unofficial visit to Georgetown on Monday of this week.

• Also at Brewster Academy, former Army commit Ryan Beddeo opted to re-open his recruitment and picked up new interest from Sacred Heart and Holy Cross quickly thereafter. Unsigned big man Zach Cameron-Chodes also landed an offer from Kennesaw State.

• Kennesaw State, coached by former B.C. head coach Al Skinner, was also at the New Hampton School to check out Donovan Love, the senior point guard who was recently offered by Jacksonville. In other Husky news, junior swingman Anthony Gaines picked up an offer from Vermont while fellow ’17 products Walker Miller and Kristers Zoriks recently visited San Francisco.

• Xavier head coach Chris Mack took in the New Hampton School/Vermont Academy game two weeks ago follow the Musketeers’ game in Providence. Tyrique Jones, who signed with Xavier in the fall, was obviously the top priority but the Big East school has also expressed interest in both Kimani Lawrence and Christian David.

• Speaking of Vermont Academy’s junior sniper, David picked up new offers from Virginia Tech and Seton Hall following his performance at the Spalding HoopHall Classic. In other VA news, junior swingman Bailey Patella scored a Winthrop offer and was on UMass’ campus to see the Minutemen host Fordham last weekend.

• Princeton head coach Mitch Henderson made his most recent trip to New England a few weeks back, stopping at both Vermont Academy as well as Northfield Mount Hermon to check in on both school’s loaded junior classes.

• Davidson head coach Bob McKillop has also been on NMH’s campus recently as he checked in on the junior trio of Tomas Murphy, Kellan Grady and Andrew Platek as they knocked off St. Thomas More ten days ago. Additionally, Ian Sistare took a recent official visit to Boston University and was on hand for their buzzer beating win over Lehigh on national television.

• At Commonwealth Academy, Hasahn French added his most recent high-major offer when Providence recently came calling while Shyheim Hicks’ breakout junior year has continued with his most recent offers coming from Buffalo and Manhattan. It has also been reported that Jordan Hardwick will reclassify to the class of 2018.

• Another player seeking an extra year is St. Andrew’s big man Terrell Brown, who has recently been playing some of the best basketball of his career, and will now reportedly seek a post-graduate year following his graduation and join the class of 2017 in the process. Fellow Saints’ senior Nate Duda scored a recent scholarship offer from Pace University.

• Cushing Academy’s junior class has been busy as of late. The team took a visit to UMass’ campus to see the Minutemen hold off Rhode Island last week while Makai Ashton-Langford, Wabissa Bede, Jarrod Simmons and Greg Kuakumensah were on Providence’s campus for their game against Villanova this weekend. The Wildcats have recently expressed interest in Ashton-Langford, while Virginia is now expressing interest in Bede following this weekend’s NPSI.

• Creighton is another school actively recruiting Cushing’s 2017 point guard tandem, and they are expected to be at the Penguins’ game this Wednesday. Creighton also became the latest school to offer Putnam Science Academy’s junior guard Hamidou Diallo.

• MacDuffie big man Jordy Tshimanga has been making waves since his performance at the Spalding Hoophall Classic. He picked up an offer from Arizona in the week following and most recently added offers from Minnesota and Oklahoma State. He’s reportedly likely to visit Pittsburgh and Nebraska as well.

• A few juniors have added recent offers as Lehigh joined the hunt for Proctor Academy junior Geo Baker and Duquesne pulled the trigger on Holderness wingman Philmon Gebrewhit.

• Fairfield Prep junior big man Patrick Harding has continued to get steady division I recruitment as Princeton, Holy Cross and Brown were all in to see him within a one week stretch.

• Binghamton became the first division one school to offer St. Sebastian’s forward Dana Tate last week as well.