Wittman and Figini Summer Ball

Cornell rising senior, Ryan Wittman and incoming freshman, Josh Figini will both spend the summer playing in the Howard Pully Pro City League in Minneapolis. Both are from the Minneapolis area.

The 6'9" Figini was assigned to play with the Errol Carlstrom Playaz. The team features Minnesota Gophers Devoe Joseph and Trevor Mbakwe. Also on the Playerz are former Gophers Mitch Ohnstad and Steve Esselink.

Wittman is playing with Team B-2-X which features several outstanding wing forwards. In addition to Wittman, the squad features Minnesota Gopher sharpshooter 6'6" Blake Hoffarber and future Gopher and Minnesota Mr. Basketball 6'4" Rodney Williams. A pair of guards from Wofford College, Cameron Rundles and Jamar Diggs will lead the backcourt. Former Minnesota Gopher, 6'7" banger Zach Puchtel is on the roster, as well future Gopher walk-on Dominique Dawson.

The rest of the league features many other current and former Division I players as well as some players who had brief stints in the NBA.

Read more »

News and Notes: Around the Ivy League

In Ivy League news, Dartmouth posted its 2009-2010 roster online. The roster reveals that 6'8" forward, Jarrett Mathis has opted to return for a 5th season, while rising senior guard, Robby Pride has apparently left the program.

Wagner College posted its 2009-2010 schedule and it includes Ivy League opponents, Brown, Columbia and Princeton.

Finally, in some recruiting news, ChicagoHoops.com reports that Penn concluded its camp this weekend and opted to make an offer to Eric Dortch, a 6'3" forward from Evanston, Illinois.

Read more »

Cornell Daily Sun Recaps Big Red Recruiting Class

In the news today, the Cornell Daily Sun summarizes Cornell's incoming 2009-2010 recruiting class. Pictured above, incoming fresman, Miles Asafo-Adjei (No. 15).

Men's Basketball Looks Towards the Future With 2009 Recruiting Class

By Zack Slabotsky
Cornell Daily Sun
June 22, 2009

Men’s basketball head coach Steve Donahue added six players to the program for the 2009-10 season, including five incoming freshman and one transfer. The Red appears poised to contend for a third consecutive Ivy League Championship on the strength of its senior class, which features Ryan Wittman, Louis Dale, Geoff Reeves and Alex Tyler, among others. The incoming recruiting class should have one year to learn from the class of 2010 before taking the burden of extending Cornell’s recent stretch of success.

A staple in this year’s recruiting class is size. Five of the team’s six new players are 6-6 or taller. At 6-9, Josh Figini is the tallest of the bunch. The Minnesota native averaged 25 points and 14 rebounds a game to earn third-team all-state honors.

Maryland’s Eitan Chemerinski stands 6-8 and has a game to match his size. In his senior season, Chemerinski averaged 20 points and nine rebounds per game, won a conference player of the year award, and was a McDonald's High School All-America nominee.

Forward Errick Peck (6-6) scored 14 points and grabbed 11 rebounds per game as a senior at Indianapolis’ Cathedral High School. Like Chemerinski, Peck was a McDonald's High School All-America nominee.

Miles Asafo-Adjei, from Tennessee, will look to add athleticism to the Red backcourt. The 6-2 guard was a three-sport athlete in high school. 6-7 California-native Peter McMillan will attempt to apply his toughness on the interior for Cornell.

Anthony Gatlin transferred to Cornell after playing two seasons at Centenary College in Louisiana. In 58 career games, including 28 starts, Gatlin, a Texas native, averaged 4.5 points and 2.5 rebounds per game.

Read more »

More highlight footage

This time the highlights contain a lot of Mason basketball legend George Evans; the greatest player in school history to date in my opinion.

Read more »

Recruiting News

Below, a significant dosage of recruiting updates from around the Ivy League...

MinnesotaPreps.com reports that Aaron Anderson, a 5'10 point guard from Osseo High School in Minnesota has an offer from the University of North Dakota, while also drawing interest from Penn, Princeton, Bucknell, South Dakota State and Northeastern. He plans on attending Loyola-Chicago's Elite Camp this month.

Joseph Slocum, a 6'3" combo guard from Vallejo High School in California is hearing from Penn, Stanford, UC Santa Barbara, Colorado and Portland, according to NorCalPreps.com. His 3.8 GPA and 1560 SAT score make him a prime prospect for schools with demanding admissions standards.

Rivals.com provides news on several Ivy League prospects.

Brown has offered 6'4" T.J. Bray of Waukesha Catholic High School in Wisconsin. Bray also holds an offer from Florida Gulf Coast. Other schools showing interest include Columbia, Harvard, Yale, Northeastern, Wisconsin-Milwaukee and Wisconsin-Green Bay.

Turlock High School in California is home to 6'4" shooting guard Travis Souza. Columbia, Harvard, Penn, Pepperdine, UC Davis, UC Santa Barbara, and Pacific are among his college suitors.

Andre Simon of Menchville High School in Newport News, Virginia is a 6'5" forward hearing from Columbia, Bucknell, Navy, Colgate and William & Mary.

Will Davis, a 6'8" forward from Sacramento High School in Sacramento, California is drawing interest from Columbia, Harvard, Sacramento State, Santa Clara, Pacific, UC Davis, UC Irvine and UC Santa Barbara among others.

Scout.com reports that Jonathan Rice, a 6'5" wing from Fayetteville Academy in North Carolina is hearing from Dartmouth and Harvard, as well as from Navy, Air Force, American, The Citadel, Western Carolina, UNCG, Drake, Charleston and even Wake Forest.

RecruitRecon.com notes recruiting news on a few Ivy prospects.

Columbia, Davidson, Vanderbilt, Temple, Penn State, FAU, FIU, and Central Florida are among those interested in Jake Wheeler, a 6'7" forward from American Heritage High School in Boca, Florida.

Dartmouth, Boston U., Army, Central Conn., and Niagara are showing attention in Frank Robinson, a 6'3" guard from Mt. Pleasant, Rhode Island.

Harvard, Penn State, Siena, Robert Morris, Rider, Hartford, and Howard have all offered Christian Morris, a 6'7" power forward from Friends Central School in Wynnewood, Pa. Morris is also hearing from nearly a half-dozen Big East schools.

Yale, Harvard, Bucknell, Liberty and Quinnipiac are all interested in Preston Terrell, a 5'10" guard from the Miller School in Charlottesville, Virginia.

Chris Santo, a 6'4" guard from Cherry Hill East High School in New Jersey is getting attention from both Penn and Princeton, as well as from Big 5 schools, Temple, St. Joe's and La Salle, as well as Lafayette and Vermont.

Princeton would love to have the services of 6'11"225 lb. post, Josh Henderson of Cave Spring High School in Virginia. He already holds scholarship offers to Davidson, Bucknell, James Madison, Radford, Navy and VCU. Many other programs at various levels are sniffing-- including Virginia Tech, Michigan, Virginia, Wake Forest, and Penn State.

Cornell is showing interest in several new names that we have not yet posted on The Cornell Basketball Blog. These prospects include Rasi Jenkins (6'6" Bishop Loughlin HS, Brooklyn, NY), Christian Pierce (6'3" Western Albemarle High School, Virginia), Ethan Humphries (5'10" James River High School, Virginia), Clarence Turpin (5'9" Roanoke Catholic High School, Virginia) and R.J. Samuels (6'5" Tyler Junior College, Tyler, Texas).

Jenkins is also hearing from Niagara, Quinnipiac, St. Peter's, Old Dominion and Kent State.

Pierce is also hearing from Princeton, Bucknell, NJIT, New Hampshire, ETSU and Elon.

Humphries is also receiving attention from Yale, Bucknell and Radford.

Lehigh and Yale are also interested in Turpin, while Samuels has an impressive list of Wisconsin, Utah, Richmond, James Madison, Drexel, Loyola-Chicago and Army.

Below are some related recruiting links:

• For The Cornell Basketball Blog's list of Cornell Recruiting Targets and Ivy League Recruiting Commitments, click here.

• For The Cornell Basketball Blog's list of Ivy League Recruiting Targets, click here.

• For The Cornell Basketball Blog's "Transfer List"--- a list of Outgoing Transfers for 2008-2009, click here.
  

• For The Cornell Basketball Blog's archived stories on Cornell and Ivy League Recruiting News, click here.

• Cornell Basketball's Official 2008-2009 Ivy League Championship Season Highlights and Recruiting Video Clip, click here.

• Cornell Basketball's Unofficial 2007-2008 Ivy League Championship Season Highlights, click here.
  

• For Information on Cornell Basketball's Elite Recruiting Prospect Camp, click here.

Read more »

ESPN.com Indicates Holy Cross to Begin Interviews

Andy Katz of ESPN.com reports that Holy Cross is expected to interview Notre Dame assistant coach Sean Kearney. According to Katz, Pitt assistant coach Tom Herrion remains in the mix, and at least two or three others will be considered to replace coach Ralph Willard, who left to be an assistant at Louisville under Rick Pitino. While some media sources indicated Cornell Head Coach, Steve Donahue was at the top of Holy Cross' list, Katz did not mention Donahue as a candidate.

Read more »

Recruiting News (and then some...)

Chris Welker, a 6'6" forward from Zionsville High School in Indiana recently competed with the Indiana Junior All-Stars against Cornell recruit, Errick Peck and the Indiana Senior All-Stars. Welker told the Indianapolis Star this week that he holds an offer from Army while also receiving interest from Navy, Western Michigan, Air Force, Belmont, Columbia, Cornell, Dartmouth, Harvard, Holy Cross and IUPUI.

Speaking of Peck, he received MVP honors from the Indianapolis Star for his four game performance with the Indiana All-Stars where he averaged 16.5 points and 10 rebounds per game, while shooting 66% from the floor against the juniors and the Kentucky All Stars.

Unlike traditional All-Star games where the objective is solely entertaining the crowd, this four game series (the Indiana-Kentucky Classic) was played competitively with an emphasis on teamwork. After his performance, a strong case could be made that Peck is the top player from the state.

Peck was regularly considered among the top 20 players in his senior class, but what could have kept him from the Mr. Basketball discussion was a shortage of supporting numbers. After all, Peck's stats at Indianapolis Cathedral High School were not exactly jaw dropping. He averaged a very solid 14.4 points, 11.1 rebounds and 2.2 blocks per game. But he also was forced to play inside as a center in the post and had to share the ball with teammate and Purdue recruit, Kelsey Barlow, a 6'5" wing.

While Peck may not play wing forward at Cornell, he proved with the Indiana All-Stars that he could play the role of a Charles Barkley-like roaming power forward where he is free to move anywhere on the floor.

Heading into 2009-2010, as a frontcourt unit, Peck, Mark Coury (a 6'9" Kentucky transfer) and 6'6" junior Adam Wire will provide a tremendous boost of energy and aggression off the bench for the Cornell Big Red. Throw-in backcourt snipers Max Groebe (a 6'4" guard and UMass transfer) and reigning Rookie of the Year point guard, Chris Wroblewski and Cornell has a reserve team that is good enough to compete with any opposing Ivy starting five.

This unit could also be Cornell's starting five for 2010-2011.

Below are some related recruiting links:

• For The Cornell Basketball Blog's list of Cornell Recruiting Targets and Ivy League Recruiting Commitments, click here.

• For The Cornell Basketball Blog's list of Ivy League Recruiting Targets, click here.

• For The Cornell Basketball Blog's "Transfer List"--- a list of Outgoing Transfers for 2008-2009, click here.
  

• For The Cornell Basketball Blog's archived stories on Cornell and Ivy League Recruiting News, click here.

• Cornell Basketball's Official 2008-2009 Ivy League Championship Season Highlights and Recruiting Video Clip, click here.

• Cornell Basketball's Unofficial 2007-2008 Ivy League Championship Season Highlights, click here.
  

• For Information on Cornell Basketball's Elite Recruiting Prospect Camp, click here.

Read more »