You Never Know

BEVERLY HILLS (MI) -- To say that college hoops recruiting is the ultimate crap shoot is more than just an understatement -- it’s a fact of life, documented by the 400+ players who transfer every year. You just never know.

In 2012, Archie was aggressively pursuing local talents Deontae “Teddy” Hawkins and late-blooming PG Andre Yates, both from State Champion Dayton Dunbar. UD offered each player, but they balked and rumor has it that they wanted Coach Miller to also sign their Wolverine teammate Gary Akbar. Archie said thanks but no thanks and moved on.

At the time, Tom Archdeacon in The DDN saw Yates as the 2nd coming of Norris Cole, another lightly recruited Dunbar PG who ended up at CSU and is now thriving in the NBA Playoffs:

http://www.daytondailynews.com/blogs...cxtype=feedbot

Let’s take a look and see how things have worked out so far, shall we?

Andre Yates signed with Creighton and announced last week that he is leaving the Bluejays after averaging 1 PPG and 5 minutes per contest.

http://www.omaha.com/article/2013051...JAYS/705119845

Deontae Hawkins had committed to Final Four participant Wichita State after spending a year in prep school but is now fielding offers once again:

http://rivals.yahoo.com/ncaa/basketb...Hawkins-106257

Gary Akbar wound up at Midland College, a JC in Texas where he averaged 7.5 PPG and 4.7 RPG:

http://stats.njcaa.org/sports/mbkb/2.../garyakbar8ic7

The article on Hawkins says he is hearing from OSU; Yates should end up in a decent program and the jury is still out on Akbar. Time will tell.

Elsewhere in recruiting more new names keep popping up on the Flyers hot board:

Jalen Hudson is a 2014 SG from Marcus Johnson’s alma mater Akron SVSM:

http://verbalcommits.com/players/jalen-hudson

Adonis DelaRossa is a 6’10” 270 lb. skyscraper from Middle Village, NY:

http://verbalcommits.com/players/adonis-delarosa

Martin Geben is a sought-after PF from Hagerstown, MD:

http://verbalcommits.com/players/martin-geben

Josh Mejia is a 6’2” 2015 SG from Brooklyn:

http://verbalcommits.com/players/josh-mejia

In other news:

-- The more you see 2015 Dayton Dunbar PG AJ Harris, the more there is to like:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CxTxX...ature=youtu.be

-- Jim Jabir just keeps getting it done with the Flyers women’s program. His latest recruit is 6’4” Saicha Grant-Allen from Canada:

http://www.thespec.com/sports-story/...-u-s-colleges/

-- Middletown star Vince Edwards is debating between Purdue and Michigan so forget about him donning the Red and Blue:

http://www.journalgazette.net/articl...ce=twitterfeed

-- The NCAA Final Four is moving to Turner Sports in 2014 and 2015. Turner Sports President David Levy is probably smiling non-stop:

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/05/08/sp...asketball&_r=0

-- The hottest shot in all of hoops is not the dunk--it’s the teardrop:

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/05/09/sp...f=sports&_r=1&

-- RIP Ray Harryhausen, cinema magician extraordinaire and my childhood hero:

http://www.grantland.com/story/_/id/...ects-24-frames

That’s it “From the Swamp.”
You can email me at: swampy@udpride.com