Bruin Recruiting: Prep News Roundup (3/29)

By Bruin Basketball Report

Prep News Roundup is published every Monday.  

Commits

He is surprised by the comparison, but should not be. "Miles Simon?" Tyler Lamb said. "Wow. He was such a great player ... NCAA Tournament MVP." Lamb might be Mater Dei's best all-around player since Simon played for the Monarchs before going on to Arizona, where he helped the Wildcats win a national championship and he was named the NCAA tourney's most outstanding player in 1997. Lamb led his team to a championship this year, as Mater Dei won the CIF-Southern Section Division 1AA championship. Clearly the best player on the county's best team, Lamb is the Orange County boys basketball player of the year for the 2009-10 season. Lamb, a 6-foot-5 senior guard, was consistently spectacular, and spectacularly consistent. He led the Monarchs with 18.5 points a game, was second in rebounding at 6.8 rebounds a game and tied for the team lead in assists at 3.6 a game.  OC Varsity 3/23

 

Recruits

The Gators will now more than likely turn to the spring recruiting period in search of another point guard to take pressure off Walker and Boynton. One player who won't be in their future plans is two-time Gatorade National Player of the Year Brandon Knight. According to Scout.com, the Gators are no longer pursuing Knight, a 6-foot-3 five-star point guard from outside Fort Lauderdale. Florida will likely instead turn its attention to Ray McCallum, a Detroit-area prep standout rated by Rivals.com as the 15th best point guard in the nation. The 6-foot-1 McCallum also is being pursued by Arizona and Detroit Mercy, where his father is the head coach. Gainesville Sun 3/24

Ray McCallum, who finished third in Mr. Basketball voting, scored 24 points to lead the revenge-minded Yellowjackets. He wasn't part of the 2008 team that lost 48-35 to Powers, but the rivalry became more personal for him when he experienced an 85-81 loss to the Chargers last season. "Ever since the clock hit zero last year, a couple of us came together and said we're going to beat them this year," McCallum said. "We're not going to let that happen again. We got back to work the next day. All the hard work paid off tonight." MLive 3/24

Only 6'7 PF Desmond Simmons has been announced but it is rumored that 6'9 PF Terrence Jones, 7'0 JC C Aziz Ndiaye, or 6'5 SG Terrence Ross who plays on the same team as Jones will be joining the program. Some say Jones and Ross are a package deal for Washington.  UW Dawg Pound 3/26

Ray McCallum finished with 22 points, eight rebounds and six assists for Country Day (25-2), while Amir Williams added 11 points, 16 rebounds and five blocks. Country Day (25-2) dominated the first half defensively, holding the Tigers to 20 points on 21 percent shooting.  MLive 3/26

Rivals.com is reporting that KU coaches will be in San Diego on Monday to check in on Angelo Chol, a 6-8, 195-pound junior forward from Herbert Hoover High School. Chol, who is Rivals.com’s No. 19-rated player in the Class of 2011, is considering KU, North Carolina, UConn, Florida and many others. LJ World 3/27

This was going to be Detroit Country Day's year. Ray McCallum made sure of it. The senior guard scored 16 of the Yellow Jackets' 18 second-quarter points and finished with 32 overall in a 71-47 victory over Lansing Sexton in the Class B boys basketball championship game Saturday at Michigan State University's Breslin Arena. "He was phenomenal,'' County Day coach Kurt Keener said. "There was a stretch he took over the game and showed all the things he was capable of.'' During McCallum's 16-point second quarter, he scored 12 points on four consecutive 3-point plays: two inside with a foul and two outside three-pointers. "The team feeds off me,'' McCallum said. "And I wanted to get out there and get in attack mode. The shots started falling.'' "In the second half, I knew they'd be keying on me, and I tried to give my teammates the ball.''  MLive 3/28

Manny Harris’ impending departure from the Michigan basketball program for the NBA Draft will leave a gaping hole in the lineup. He was U-M’s leading scorer in all three years of his career and usually the go-to player in crunch time. But his spot could be quickly filled by an elite talent. Mt. Pleasant guard Trey Zeigler has that potential — rated as the nation’s No. 26 player in the 2010 class, according to Rivals.com. (Just for perspective, when Harris came to Michigan in 2007, he was the nation’s No. 34-ranked player.) Zeigler, a 6-foot-4, 185-pound guard who finished second in voting for Michigan's Mr. Basketball, has become the state’s most intriguing recruit still remaining and took particular interest in the news that Harris wouldn’t be at U-M if he chose the Wolverines. “I did not hear that,” Zeigler told the Free Press Friday at the Breslin Center when informed of the report that Harris was leaving U-M. “Manny going pro? I’m glad he is. I haven’t talked to him in a couple weeks but he’s a great player. It’s not going to really affect my decision at all.  Detroit Free Press 3/28

Terrence Jones is considered a blue-chip big-man prospect, though the Washington native has yet to profess his college choice. It's hard to believe, however, that Jones is as good as Cousins, who may be the toughest of all ofCalipari's whiz kids to replace. Kentucky Sports 3/29

Ray McCallum Jr. threatened Keith Appling's state-final scoring record for one half, then settled for the prize he really came for -- a state championship. McCallum scored 25 points in the first half and Detroit Country Day breezed to its eighth state title by defeating Lansing Sexton 71-47 in the Class B final Saturday at the Breslin Center. Country Day's last title was in 2007. Advertisement Appling scored 49 points to lead Detroit Pershing to the Class A title last year. McCallum finished with 32 points, seven steals and eight rebounds. "My goal this year was to win a state championship," McCallum said. "I was in an attack mode from the start." Detroit News 3/29