Recruiting Wire Vol.4

Recruiting Wire- Beginning of Bracketology
As January slowly winds down, and the Bracketology “experts” start to make their cases for 1 seeds in the tournament, I start to ask myself who should get the key position out West. The only 2 teams at the moment that I have in mind is Gonzaga and Arizona; now you know my opinion on the Zags, but Arizona is an interesting team. I really like Arizona’s head man Sean Miller, but his team is in an odd position because of one of their players. Allonzo Trier is a guard that is suspended because of a failed drug test, were he had one of the NCAA banned medication. The NCAA has said that he can play when the drug is out of his system, but Arizona doesn’t know when that will exactly be, in fact nobody does. Trier hopes to be back before the tournament, and if they can keep the 18-2 pace up until then, Arizona will be a dangerous team come March Madness.

Getting into the Top 25, a few new teams enter this week. It looks like this:
1.      Villanova
2.      Kansas
3.      Gonzaga
4.      Kentucky
5.      Baylor
6.      Florida State
7.      Arizona
8.      UCLA
9.      North Carolina
10.  Oregon
11.  Butler
12.  Virginia
13.  Louisville  
14.  Norte Dame
15.  Wisconsin
16.  Creighton
17.  Duke
18.  West Virginia
19.  Cincinnati
20.  Purdue
21.  St. Mary’s
22.  Maryland
23.  South Carolina
24.  Xavier
25.  Florida
Despite 2 big losses this week I am still a supporter of West Virginia. In my mind, there is no such thing as a good loss, but the 2 losses that the Mountaineers suffered this week were by 2 and 4 points respectively. Speaking of the Mountaineers my Top 10 looks like this:
1.      Villanova
2.      Kansas
3.      Gonzaga
4.      UCLA
5.      Arizona
6.      West Virginia
7.      North Carolina
8.      Florida State
9.      Baylor
10.  Oregon
I have caught glimpses of this years’ Oregon team and I like them a lot. I think they could be that 5 or 6 seed that does some damage to brackets this March. My Underappreciated Performer of the week goes to former Middletown High School graduate and Kennesaw State guard Kendrick Ray. Ray scored 22 points with 5 rebounds and 6 assists in 40 minutes of play in a win against Jacksonville. Ray is a starter on Kennesaw State, but being in a lesser D1 school he doesn’t get the praise that this type of performance deserves. Which moves us into the schools that do receive that type of coverage, my Best Performance of the week. That belongs to North Carolina State guard Dennis Smith Jr. The Wolfpack guard scored 32, grabbed 4 boards, 6 assists and picked a Blue Devil pocket twice in a key ACC matchup. Smith was absolutely incredible in the upstate against Duke in Cameron Indoor. The #17 Blue Devils were upstate by NC State in Durham for the first time since 1995. Dennis Smith Jr. is one of the most underrated players in the country, but there is no way he couldn’t have the Performance of the Week for the outing he had last night.

Getting into the upcoming schedule, and it isn’t anything special. This weeks’ schedule is nothing like the past 2 weeks in terms of quality of games. Tonight on the ACC at 8PM there is a decent Top 25 matchup with #12 Virginia going to #14 Norte Dame. Also Tonight on ESPN at 9PM #4 Kentucky goes to Tennessee to have a tough in Conference matchup. It wouldn’t be crazy to think that the Wildcats walk out of Tennessee tomorrow night with a loss. On Thursday, another interesting Top 25 matchup between #24 Xavier and #19 Cincinnati at 7PM EST on ESPN 2. I will keep my eye on that game, I want to see what the Bearcats have this season. Moving onto the all-important Saturday, and well I’m not that impressed. The only 2 games that catch my eye is #9 North Carolina traveling to “The U” to play Miami, and Florida going to Oklahoma—maybe the Sooners will have back to back weekends of Top 25 upsets. But, keep your eye on the Recruiting Wire, because the Class of 2017 will be taking the college courts before you know it.
Sources:(espn.com)

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