I love the artificial style of college basketball recruiting. July has two “evaluation periods” where coaches can watch recruits in action at camps and AAU tournaments but cannot communicate directly with them. The time when every coach is wearing their brightest and most vibrant sweatshirts and track suits with the school’s name on it. Let them know you are there for them.
The most important 2008 recruiting class target for Pitt is still Eloy Vargas, who has just been given his 5th star by Rivals.com and moved up to #23 in their overall rankings for the Rivals.com 150. Miami still has hope of getting him, as does Louisville and others.
Eloy Vargas and Angel Garcia are also coveted by Louisville. Both players visited the U of L campus recently. Vargas, a 6-foot-10 skilled forward from American Heritage (Fla.), is also high on Pittsburgh, Ohio State, Indiana and Florida.
The shoe camps have changed this year, but they are still the big showcase.
In a potentially significant move, Nike, Adidas and Reebok have replaced their all-American camps, which often celebrated individual accomplishments, with events they say will promote teamwork, fundamentals and life skills.
The changes largely were made to improve the image of summer basketball, which has been criticized, both by sports commentators and the NCAA, for a lack of oversight and a perceived failure to teach fundamentals, which has been cited as one of the reasons for the United States’ recent struggles in international competition.
What’s more, Sonny Vaccaro, the influential and controversial figure who helped make the summer basketball scene a multimillion-dollar industry, has left the shoe company business, a move that further altered the landscape.
“It’s up to us to reinvent ourselves,” said Reebok’s Chris Rivers, who took over the shoe company’s grass-roots operations from Vaccaro. “We want to change the image of ourselves.”
Vargas, along with Pitt commits Travon Woodall and Ashton Gibbs will be at Rbk U in Philly for the camp. I have to imagine that Orlando Antigua and Jamie Dixon will definitely be in Philly. Brandin Knight is not allowed to go to the camps in his position. Tom Herrion is likely to be checking out the Nike LeBron James Skills Academy in Akron.
