Recruiting News

Below, some more recruiting news for today...

According to Scout.com, Davon Marshall, a 5'10" point guard from Niagara Falls High School in Niagara Falls, New York is hearing from Cornell, St. Bonaventure, Kent State, Buffalo, Cen. Conn. St., Lehigh, Northeastern, Niagara, Canisius, and Albany. Davon played for the Buffalo Hoops AAU basketball program during the summer. A member of the 2010 class, Davon averaged 18 points a game last season.

Will Sheehey, a 6'6" wing from South Fork High School in Stuart, Florida is hearing from Stanford, Northwestern, Bucknell, George Washington and a host of Ivy League programs, as well as Virginia, South Carolina and Mississippi. He has taken unofficial visits to Penn, Princeton and Columbia. He he has a scholarship offer from Northwestern and is expecting an offer from Stanford.

According to CaliforniaPreps.com, J'vonte Brooks, a 6'6" forward from Foothills Christian High School in San Diego, California, is receiving looks from schools such as Yale, Drake, New Mexico, and Portland State.

Finally, per the request of several readers, we provide links down below to popular articles on Harvard's alleged recruiting violations and questionable conduct within the last year. Below is an excerpt from a Rivals.com/YahooSports article summarizing some of the key allegations:

...last June a guy named Kenny Blakeney, who just happened to have played at Duke when Amaker was an assistant there, began repeatedly playing pickup games with high school players Harvard was recruiting – Max Kenyi of Washington, D.C., and Keith Wright of Norfolk, Va. Blakeney even traveled nearly 400 miles roundtrip for the supposedly casual games with Wright...

On July 2, after all that time hanging out with the recruits when no other recruiter could, Blakeney was – surprise! – hired by Amaker to be a Harvard assistant. A few months later both players signed with the Crimson.

To argue this was a coincidence would be an insult to everyone’s intelligence and, as we know, Harvard prides itself on intelligence. If it isn’t a violation of the letter of the NCAA rules – the NCAA won’t comment on potential cases – it certainly smashes the spirit of it.

We note that although the Ivy League investigated the Harvard matter, the NCAA has not yet undertaken an investigation. Further, there is no statute of limitations or rule precluding the Ivy League Office from reopening the case or the NCAA from beginning its own investigation. In short, to suggest that Harvard is fully exonerated is just false.

For a small sample of related articles to the controversies surrounding the Harvard basketball program, see the following.

• New York Times: Amaker Brings Baggage to Harvard
• New York Times: In a New Era at Harvard, New Questions of Standards
• Washington Post: Harvard Won't Admit It's Now Playing the Game Like Everyone Else
• Chronicle of Higher Education: Harvard Coach Accused of Cutting Corners in Recruiting for Men's Basketball Team
• Yahoo.com/Rivals.com: Scandal at Harvard?
  
• New York Times: Highly Recruited Center No Longer Set to Attend Harvard
• New York Times: Amaker’s Move Creates a Clash of Harvard Ideals