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NOTES FROM THE ROAD

Rob Harrington
robharrington@prepstars.com
July 19, 2010

We’re at the midway point of the July evaluation, the first leg of which concluded late last week. The live period — defined as the stretch when college coaches are allowed to watch players perform at tournaments and camps — resumes on Thursday.

The second half of July largely consists of action in Las Vegas and Orlando, but before shifting focus to those major events, let’s take a look at some of the lessons learned thus far.

1. Michael Gilchrist still gets our vote for No. 1 in the class, at least for now. While Austin Rivers and Anthony Davis are gaining steam in some quarters as the top prospect in the Class of 2011, we continue to prefer Gilchrist based on his overall combination of tangibles and intangibles. He had one of the best games we’ll see all summer during his first outing at the Peach Jam, just a day after flying back to the United States from Germany.

2. Nike’s new format definitely worked. The Peach Jam had in prior years been a standalone event, but this year marked the first occasion when it served as the culmination of Nike’s Elite Youth circuit. Satellite events in the spring and early summer filtered out the rubble and pared the list of teams to 24, so Team Takeover (Md.) truly can claim to be the company’s best team in 2010.

3. The Adidas Invitational was a smash hit as well. While many mourned the demise of the Reebok All-American Camp, its absence enabled Adidas’ Indianapolis tournament to fortify its lineup and host a truly national-class field.

4. The pace of commitments has been abnormally slow this year. The increasing restrictions on when college coaches can watch players has pushed back the timing of scholarship offers — and this is precisely what the NCAA wanted — and thus slowed the number of early commitments.

5. The Class of 2011 looks to be improving at the top. There haven’t been a great number of new names to surface since the opening of the travel period in April, but Anthony Davis certainly has brought a freshness to the elite realm. Further, Nick Faust and Cody Zeller also have made major strides.

6. In the underclasses, the Class of 2012, continues to impress everyone with its atypical amount of frontcourt depth. Numerous big men with real, A-grade college talent already have been identified, and certainly others are likely to be added along the way. These guys still have two years of high school remaining! That said, the point guard situation in the class remains dreary and desperately needs to improve.