Adam Zagoria blogs a bit about Dan Jennings from New York. A class of 2009 or 2010 recruit at the power forward/center spot. He’s had a very good summer with his AAU team, the New York Gauchos.
Jennings has an application in at Oak Hill Academy (Va.) and could end up there this season, according to Book Richardson, the former Gauchos director. After that, depending upon his academic situation, Jennings could prep for a year before being a high-major D-1 player.
“He could be a Top 50 player because he works so hard and he’s a sponge,” Richardson said. “He’s a freak of nature. He’s big, he’s strong, he’s quick and very agile. He would probably spend a year at Oak Hill and then a year of prep if he’s not academically eligible.”
If he does go to play for Steve Smith at Oak Hill, folks can watch him on ESPN2 against St. Benedict’s on Dec. 13 in a game that will take place in Lexington, Ky.
In terms of Jennings’ college situation, the young man said he had received offers from Rutgers, Seton Hall, St. John’s, Pitt, Xavier, Memphis, South Florida and that Arizona had showed interest.
“I like Arizona a lot,” he said. “I also like Memphis and Pittsburgh.”
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Jennings said he is tight with Theodore, the Seton Hall recruit, and with Pitt-bound guard Travon Woodall of Paterson and St. Anthony. Both have talked to Jennings about coming to their schools to form a strong guard/big man tandem.
Jennings has essentially ruled out Seton Hall, Rutgers and St. John’s at this time. Saying he doesn’t want to be that close to home. If you just go by the schools interested in him, obviously he has a lot of potential.
Looking to some alum, Aaron Gray has been working out with the Chicago Bulls conditioning and strength coaches since the summer league ended.
“Working with the staff here is a great opportunity,” said Gray, a 7-footer who spent four years at the University of Pittsburgh. “The work I put in this summer is going to be one of the keys to me being on the court.”
Given that he was a second round draft pick, there are no guarantees for Gray. The majority of players taken after the first round do not end up in the NBA; rather they either play in the NBA’s Development League or go overseas. And that’s exactly what is motivating Gray this summer.
“It’s great because I’m kind of the underdog again,” he said. “I’ve kind of played that role my whole life and had some good success at Pitt. Now I’m here, back at the bottom of the totem pole, where I’ve been before. I’ve worked my way up to the top before and hopefully I’ll have the opportunity to do the same here.”
Meanwhile, Levon Kendall played a bit in the summer league for the Utah Jazz. He will be heading to Greece to play professionally. Right now, he is playing on the Canadian national team. His hometown paper in Vancouver is giving him one of the biggest slurp jobs I’ve ever read.
It had to be a little frustrating for Vancouver’s Levon Kendall on Wednesday playing for Canada against Argentina.
The performance of the starters was so pathetic the game was virtually over by the time the big Kits grad got off coach Leo Rautins’ bench to put in his typical 18 to 20 minutes in a very effective role for a team trying to qualify for the Beijing Olympics.
Just what he’s doing there instead of starting is another matter, but presumably Rautins knows his personnel better than it appeared against the Argie,s who won 85-70.
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That’s unlikely now. But this surely can’t diminish Kendall’s performance. The former Pittsburgh Panther has been outstanding for Canada, particularly in Monday’s second-round victory over Uruguay.
The 23-year-old is set to begin his pro career in Greece with Panionios and the way his development is going it wouldn’t be terribly surprising to see him get some NBA time before he ends his tremendous basketball career.
“I signed a two-year deal and it has an out after one if I get an NBA offer,” said Kendall, almost certainly being scouted closely by NBA teams at this competition given his rate of improvement, particularly at the offensive end. “I played with the Utah Jazz team in the summer league and did pretty well so hopefully they’ll be watching.”
Kendall took a lot of abuse at times for always getting the national commentators gushing about his intangibles at Pitt while fans just wanted something more tangible.
Enough already. If he puts up, good for him. I hope he makes it. But I haven’t seen ANYTHING out of him, ever.
LAS VEGAS — Levon Kendall and Leo Rautins have a recurring conversation every time the two reconnect following a winter apart.
Rautins begins by welcoming him back to the Canadian national team program and then tells the Vancouver native to get out of his West-Coast casual mode.
Rautins is one of Kendall’s biggest boosters and sees big things for the 6-foot-10 forward, but he’s very much aware of Kendall’s shortcomings as well.
“I’ve been telling everyone I think he’s an NBA player,” Rautins said yesterday, following a 97-80 win over Mexico. “He may not be there right now, but he’s pretty darn close when you look at a lot of the guys who are in the league. He’s going to get over to Europe (he has got a deal with a Greek team) and have a real chance to develop both here with us and then continue that in Europe.”
Right now, Kendall is on top of his game. He has had double-doubles in two of his past four games at the FIBA Americas championship and is averaging 10.5 points and just over eight rebounds over those four games. Despite coming off the bench with Juan Mendez for starters Jesse Young and Sam Dalembert, Kendall is having a large impact on what Canada is doing here.
Best of all for Rautins, is the extra effort he is seeing from the usually laid-back Kendall.
“That’s the key for him right now,” Rautins said. “He’s going after it. He has got that West-Coast casual thing. So for three years in a row now I’ve been on him to get out of cruise control. You can see when he’s not in cruise control, he’s pretty darn good.”
Rautins believes Kendall’s development is only going to take off once he gets over to Europe.
Having seen him at Pitt where he just finished up his senior year, Rautins came away convinced he was miscast there.
“You hate to say it but we see Levon every summer and every summer he gets better and better. Then when he would go back to school he would (regress). You look at what he does — he rebounds, he scores, he passes, he does so many things well. When I saw him playing at Pitt, I didn’t even recognize him.”
At Pitt, Kendall was cast as an energy guy coming off the bench who could rebound. Beyond that, not much more was expected of him. With Team Canada he scores, he defends, he rebounds. He’s a much more complete player.”
Rautins can’t wait to see Kendall next summer after a season of playing in Europe.