Recruting updates

It's now looking like I may have been wrong when I said that barring injury, Kevin Newsome will not start a game at Penn State as Paul Jones has decided to look around. Penn State fans, enjoy holding your breath for the next ten months.

We all know that Penn State won the NIT, but what did they get for winning? How about landing the biggest recruit in Penn State men's basketball history. Guard Taran Buie, half brother of Nittany Lion star Talor Battle, became Penn State's first commitment for their 2010 class after watching the NIT tournament conclude at Madison Square Garden. Buie selected Penn State over Georgia Tech, Maryland, Notre Dame, and Syracuse, among many other offers.

The big story:

This is sort of complex but it's ultra interesting; this is the continuing saga over this year's top basketball players. If you looked at Rivals.com's top basketball prospects in the country for 2009 last week you would have seen that their #2 player, forward DeMarcus Cousins, and their #3 player, wing Xavier Henry were both committed to Memphis. And at the time, their #1 player, point guard John Wall, was known to be a heavy Memphis lean as well. When John Calipari left Memphis for Kentucky everything changed. Wall is undecided, Henry is undecided, and Cousins is now leaning hard towards joining Calipari at Kentucky.

I would be shocked if DeMarcus Cousins didn't go to Kentucky; everything else is up in the air. I also heard today that North Carolina, who previously had claimed to want nothing to do with John Wall due to Wall's character, has thrown their hat into the ring. Wall is a lightning-fast point guard who can finish at the rim. Wall is definitely in play at this point which I would believe gives the four teams playing this weekend an advantage.

Cousins and Wall are nice players, but my focus is on Xavier Henry and what he decides. The fact that Rivals.com does not have him ranked as their #1 prospect is a complete joke. Xavier Henry IS Kobe Bryant; on the court, at least. I'm not going to lie, I have a horse in this race as well. Henry will either follow Coach Cal to Kentucky or play for his #2 choice when he had initially selected Memphis, my Kansas Jayhawks. Henry has already stated the he will not stick wih his commitment to Memphis, even though the biggest factor in choosing Memphis was his desire to play college ball with his brother, C.J. I'm going on record right now saying that I believe that Xavier Henry will be a Kansas Jayhawk and also that Xavier Henry will be the #1 overall pick in the 2010 NBA Draft.

With Henry, the nation's top wing, reconsidering Kansas, what does this do for Brooklyn's Lance Stephenson, the nation's consensus #2 wing. Stephenson, known to most as "Born Ready", has a game similar to that of LeBron James. This past Tuesday, Lance Stephenson was supposed to decide between Kansas, St. John's, and Maryland but instead decided to postpone his decision. Stephenson postponed his decision to tomorrow. Stay tuned folks, this is starting to get good.