Your weekly Husky basketball recruiting update...
- If you just finished your sophomore year of high school and have any shot at playing college basketball, chances are, your phone was blowing up this past weekend. The NCAA's basketball recruiting rule changes went into effect, allowing college coaches to make and send unlimited amounts of phone calls and text messages to recruits. While constant calls and text messages can be an annoyance to a recruit, at least this rule prevents the influence of shady third party involvement in recruiting – or does it? Your thoughts?
- It's no secret Lorenzo Romar achieves success when he can lock up the state's prep talent. Guys like Isaiah Thomas, Jon Brockman, Nate Robinson and Brandon Roy are all examples of tremendous talent UW was able to keep in state. Is the team targeting anyone from the 2014 class? An early assessment of this year's class from the state reveals a lack of top ended talent. The state's best recruit, Rainier Beach's Shaqquan Aaron is off to Louisville. However, the staff has their eyes on two in-state players from 2014, Bothell's Josh Martin (Forward, 2014) and Timberline's Donaven Dorsey (Forward, 2014). Neither player is a game-changing recruit, but they both have the tools to become impact players at Washington.
- Silas Melson (Guard, 2014) made an unofficial visit to Gonzaga this past weekend. Melson has UW and Gonzaga as his top two schools. The sharpshooter attends Jefferson HS in Oregon, the alma-mater of former Husky Terrence Ross. Here's a highlight tape of Melson from earlier this year.
- Area Codes provides an informative interview with Zylan Cheatham (Forward, 2014). Cheatham is a 6-foot-7 forward out of Phoenix, Arizona. Cheatham has ideal length, size and athleticism at the small forward position. He holds offers from Washington, Oregon, USC, Georgetown, San Diego State, and New Mexico.
- 2015 recruits are beginning to receive interest from UW's coaching staff, including wing player Bennie Boatright (Forward, 2015) from Mission Hills, Calif. In short, according to this scouting report, Boatright is a shooter with an ideal size to play the wing position at 6-foot-6. Cal and UCLA are also showing early interest.
- Another 2015 recruit to watch is Kendall Small (Guard, 2015) out of Ocean View HS in Huntington Beach, Calif. ESPN recruiting expert Joel Francisco said this about Small in a recent write-up: "He can knock down treys or use his strength to punish defenders off the dribble. However, the most impressive aspect of his game this weekend was his pin-point passing in transition." Small is receiving early interest from several Pac-12 schools including Washington.
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