Unlimited Dekstop Wallpaper: Recruiting News

Below, some recruiting news from around the Ivy League.

The Pittsburgh Post Gazette has the following blurb on Cornell's most recent commit, Jake Matthews.

Matthews to Cornell

Greensburg Salem basketball player
Jake Matthews has made a verbal commitment to Cornell University, the two-time defending Ivy League champions. Matthews, a 6-foot-2 senior shooting guard who also drew interest from Princeton, averaged 15 points a game last season and was a key in Greensburg Salem's run to the PIAA Class AAA championship game, averaging 18 points in the PIAA games.

"Cornell saw him play AAU, they saw him on tape and I think they saw him during our state playoff run last year," Greensburg Salem coach Paul Sapotichne said. "He was terrific in those games. If [senior guard] Chris Klimchock wouldn't have kept making buzzer-beaters, everyone would've been talking about Jake."

New England Recruiting Report notes that Northfield Mount Hermon School's (Mass.) Laurent Rivard, a 6'5" wing and a pair of his teammates from the class of 2011, 6'11" Vince Van Nes and 6'2" point guard Joe Sharkey were on unofficial visits at Columbia and at Yale this past weekend. Next weekend Rivard has an official visit set up at Bucknell and the weekend following he’s scheduled to take unofficial trips to both Northeastern and Harvard. He will wrap up his month with official visits to Davidson and Elon. The site notes that Cornell and Penn will also get official visits according to NMH head coach John Carroll. Rivard told NERR last week that he had “no favorites” among the schools that he plans to visit although he has already ruled out a handful of programs. He did note however that “Stanford is my dream school. I visited the school when I was very young and they have one of the top computer science programs in the country. If they ever offered I would go."

If Rivard is looking for a top computer studies program, Cornell could be high on his list. Of the schools he is visiting, Cornell is the only program ranked in U.S. News & World Report among the nation's top 10 computer engineering programs. Cornell is also tops on the list of the programs listed above in computer science. Cornell is also the only program listed above which participated in the last two NCAA Tournaments and offers arguably the best opportunity for him to play right away.

NJHoops.com is reporting that 6'4" Jesse Pritchard, originally a member of the class of 2009 at Ames High School in Iowa has landed at Blair Academy in New Jersey for a postgrad season. Pritchard committed to Yale last year after receiving a reported offer from Cornell, William & Mary and others.

FlyerHoops.Net reports that James Siakam, a 6'6" forward out of Brehm Prep in Carbondale, Illinois. has a college suitor list of Harvard, Dayton, DePaul, Illinois, Marquette, Missouri State, Ohio, Purdue, Southern Illinois, Vanderbilt, and Xavier. He is a member of the class of 2011.

Speaking of Harvard, what is going on at Harvard, as well as Penn with respect to their recruiting and roster numbers? Frankly, the numbers of players are getting more ridiculous each passing week with rosters likely topping 20 active players at each school. And no matter how these programs spin the story, there is very little justification in recruiting rosters of these sizes, especially when most of the kids on the team are passing up free/scholarship educations elsewhere.

For example, even if recruiting ended today, Penn will have 21 active and eligible players on its 2010-2011 roster. Of these 21 players, 20 were commitments directly out of high school.

As for Harvard, the Crimson already have potentially 14 returning for 2010-2011 and already have one verbal commitment for the high school class of 2010. In addition to these 15 players, the following additional 15 players have received offers to join the Harvard Basketball program (all but one for next season). Is Harvard planning on fielding a roster of 25 players next year?

Austin Carroll (Worcester Academy) Worcester, MA 6-3 (visiting September 25)
Pe'Shon Howard (Oak Hill Academy) Oak Hill, VA 6-3 (possibly visiting September 25)
Josh Huestis (Russell HS) Great Falls, MT 6-7 (visiting September 11)
Denzel Brito (Lawrence Academy) Lawrence, MA 6-0
Aaron Brown (St. Benedict's) Newark, NJ 6-4
Chad Calcaterra (Cloquet) Cloquet, MN 6-11
Jeremy Jeffers (Greenfield School) Wilson, NC 6-5/180
Keala King (Dominguez HS) Compton, CA 6-5
Ugo Okam (Monteverde Academy) Monteverde, FL 7-1 (visiting September 25)
Majok Majok (Northfield Mount Hermon School) Northfield, MA 6-8
Dominic Morris (Friends Central School) Wynnewood, PA 6-7
Rod Odom (Middlesex School) Concord, MA 6-8/195 (visiting September 25)
Dwight Powell (IMG Acad. of Brandeton FL), Ontario, Canada 6-8 (visiting September 25)
Brice Kofane (Miller School) Charlottesville, VA 6-8 (visiting September 25)
Achraf Yacoubou (Long Island Luthern HS), Long Island, NY 6-3 (class of 2011)