Green Bay Phoenix: Toronto native Tevin Findlay has officially joined the Green Bay men’s basketball recruiting Class of 2013, as the versatile combo guard signed a National Letter of Intent (NLI) to play for the Phoenix on Saturday afternoon, head coach Brian Wardle announced on Sunday.
Findlay is the third signee in the Green Bay recruiting class that will be joining the program next fall. He joins high school teammates Turner Botz and Kenneth Lowe of Little Chute High School, who signed NLIs in the early signing period in November.
“It is a great situation for me. When I went on my visit, I really felt that I was so at home and so comfortable with all of the guys and the coaches. They embraced me from the start. I could really see myself fitting in right away and helping out right away, and that is what you want to do on the college level.
“One really exciting thing about playing for Coach Wardle is his style of play. He likes to get up and down and talks about pushing the ball, and as a guard that just makes your eyes light up. The coaches are really great guys who really know the game, and as a young player that is what you need to be around day in and day out if you want to succeed, grow and reach your full potential.”
City View Sportscast: Youngstown State men’s basketball coach Jerry Slocum added yet another piece to the equation that seems to be trending towards the upper echelon of the Horizon League as Kyle Steward confirmed earlier today on his Twitter account that he has committed to play his collegiate basketball for the Penguins.
Steward, a 6-7 small forward from Detroit, Michigan chose Youngstown State over Cleveland State, Florida Atlantic, and Jacksonville University.Rider, and Houston Baptist.
This past season, the long armed Steward, who excels in the open floor using his length and explosiveness, played his senior season at Cass Tech after his previous school, Crockett closed to merge with another school.
The 6-foot-8, 210-pound junior college transfer signed a national letter of intent with UDM on Thursday and hopes to be scoring and rebounding help for Ray McCallum, who appears to be leaning toward staying for his senior year for the Titans.
Onwenu and Brundidge, who transferred from the University of Michigan and sat out this year, helped the Blue Jays to the Class A final four as seniors in 2011.
He spent last season at Highland Community College, where he earned National Junior College Division I honorable mention.
Plain Dealer: St. Ignatius senior basketball player Derek Sloan has been given a four-year scholarship to Cleveland State that will begin in the fall of 2014.
Sloan, a 6-5 forward, will have to wait a year to play because CSU does not have any scholarships available for the upcoming season. Sloan said he decided to accept CSU's offer for two reasons.
"I've always wanted to play Division I basketball and Cleveland State is close to home and that was another key reason," said Sloan, who averaged 15 points and 6.2 rebounds while leading the Wildcats to a 21-4 record and the No. 1 ranking in The Plain Dealer Top 25. The Wildcats lost in the Division I district final to Shaker Heights.
City View Sportscast: The Youngstown State Penguins are in position to add another piece to the puzzle that every year seems closer and closer to competing for a Horizon League Championship and the programs first ever trip to the NCAA Division 1 Basketball Tournament, as Jalon Plummer verbally committed to Youngstown State University per his twitter account.
Plummer, a 6’4″ guard from Romulus, Michigan averaged 11 points and 6 rebounds per contest this past season for the Michigan Class A State Champion Romulus.
Romulus, one of the nations most talented high school basketball teams this past season is set to send three other players to NCAA Division 1 programs as Wes Clark (Missouri), E.C. Mathews (Rhode Island), and Lew Edwards (Louisiana Tech) have all signed their National Letters of Intent.
Plummer is set to join Marcus Keene from Warren High in San Antonio who has already signed his National Letter of Intent to play for the Penguins next season. Keene averaged 25.6, 4.3 assists, 4.0 rebounds, and 1.7 steals per contest during his senior season as the 5’9″ guard helped the Warren Warriors to a 23-11 record this past season.
Post-Tribune: Valparaiso’s well-regarded recruiting class for the 2013-14 season has gotten even better.
The Crusaders on Wednesday officially announced that former Saint Louis point guard Keith Carter has transferred to their program. The 6-footer has enrolled for spring semester classes at Valparaiso, and will be eligible to play at the end of the 2013 fall semester at the latest, with at least three seasons of eligibility.
“I’m just a leader, a pass-first point guard, someone that will make the team better,” Carter said on Wednesday.
Carter, the runner-up for Illinois Mr. Basketball as a senior at Proviso East last season and an all-state first-team selection, averaged 3.0 points in three games for the Billikens as a freshman this season. He suffered a foot injury in the second game, missed seven games (he did not play against Valparaiso in a 62-49 Saint Louis win on Dec. 2), then scored six points in 21 minutes — both his high totals — against Eastern Illinois on Dec. 19. On Dec. 21, Saint Louis announced he was leaving the program.
Brew City Ball: In the half hour before the beginning of the intrasquad scrimmage Tuesday night, head coach Rob Jeter and the Milwaukee Panthers received a commitment from 2013 wing Trinson White. The news was broken by Indian Hills Community College, then picked up by Mark Miller of WisSports.net.
A native of Milwaukee, White played high school ball with Riverside University High School just blocks from UWM. He had been recruited by Milwaukee out of high school, but went the junior college route.
White is the fourth scholarship player who will begin play in the 2013-14 season, joining Cody Wichmann, Brett Prahl, and Steve McWhorter. Brett's twin Alex will be joining the Panthers as a preferred walk-on.
In White, the Panthers find a wing player to move into the three spot next season to help cover the loss of Demetrius Harris, which after tonight looks like a wider hole than most thought.
After spending the past three years -- and about to begin a fourth -- playing for the Villa Angela-St. Joseph Vikings, he will continue that trend after making an oral commitment to the Cleveland State Vikings.
Flannigan had praise for CSU coach Gary Waters and assistant Jermaine Kimbrough.
"Coach Waters has a realistic vision for Cleveland State basketball for the next four and five years," he said. "And he said he wanted me to be a part of that. No other coach ever said anything like that to me. I liked to hear it."
Brew City Ball: As per Mark Miller of WisHoops.net and Swing AAU coach Dana MacKenzie, the Milwaukee Panthers picked up commitments from Brett and Alex Prahl of East Troy for the class of 2013.
The Prahls are the third and fourth players in the 2013 recruiting class, joining transfer Steve McWhorter (mandatory redshirt in 2012-13) and forward Cody Wichmann.
Brett Prahlwill be on full scholarship, while his twin Alex will be playing as a preferred walk-on (four of five years on scholarship).
Both players are big, strong forwards. Alex is a decent shooter out to 15 feet and he has pretty good jumping ability for a player of his size, and he also runs the floor very well so he can keep up with the Jordan Aaron style run-and-gun.
Green Bay Press Gazette: It’s less than 25 miles from Little Chute High School to Green Bay, and it didn’t take long for University of Wisconsin-Green Bay men’s basketball coach Brian Wardle to build a pipeline.
For the second time in three months, Wardle has landed a commitment from a Little Chute senior. Forward Kenneth Lowe committed to the Phoenix on Saturday morning during a campus visit.
That came after teammate Turner Botz committed to UWGB in June.
Wardle can’t comment on either player until they sign their letters of intent in November, but it’s clear he wanted to keep both players close to home.
“Turner and Kenneth have been playing together for a long time,” Little Chute coach Mickey Martin said. “Certainly, it’s a unique situation. I would hope they can continue to build upon what Coach Wardle has started at Green Bay. I’ve been impressed through the entire recruiting process.”
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