By Alex Kline and Adam Zagoria
Despite a report earlier this week that Baylor had offered a scholarship to an 11-year old 8th-grader, don’t believe the hype.
Adrian Moore, a 6-foot-3 8th-grader from Arkansas, received a letter from the Baylor staff last week that he and his family believed was a scholarship offer.
But as you can see from the picture here, it was just a questionnaire. (Does a site called TheHoopDoctors.com really not know what an NLI looks like?)
“No,” a source close to the situation said about the reported “offer.” “He received a questionnaire, like a lot of kids do, and I guess he thought it was a scholarship offer. This isn’t football.”
While football offers are often presented in the form of a letter, basketball offers are generally offered verbally.
While all has been cleared up now between the Moore and the staff, this will likely not be the last we hear of the talented Arkansas basketball player, who was nicknamed “Class of 2016 Phenom” after dunking as a 6th-grader.
Moore is already drawing comparisons to Atlanta Hawks forward Josh Smith.
RECRUITING RUNDOWN
Georgetown Head Coach John Thompson is in attendance for 2012 Westtown (PA) forward Daniel Ochefu’s game Sunday. Ochefu is the top target for the Hoyas in 2012.
Kentucky coach John Calipari was at South Kent (Conn.) last week to watch 2012 wing Ricardo Ledo of Providence. Todd Quarles, Ledo’s AAU coach, says no visit date has yet been set for Kentucky or Louisville.
Kyle Anderson, the No. 1 point guard in the Class of 2012 from St. Anthony in Jersey City, is out of his boot after a foot injury and scrimmaged on Friday.
Onetime Seton Hall commit Eugene McCrory will visit Wagner Dec. 11, per coach Ian Turnbull of CJEOTO. Onetime FIU commit Phil Taylor of Brooklyn will trip to Northeastern that same day.
Coaches from Butler and Virginia Tech, including head coach Seth Greenberg, were recently in to watch Brewster Academy (NH) guard Eli Carter ‘11. Carter has picked up new interest from the Bulldogs and Hokies, as well as Oklahoma, Iowa, Florida and TCU.
Wisconsin is now showing interest in Wichita Heights (KS) forward Perry Ellis ’12. Ben Betts of Oklahoma and Danny Manning of Kansas attended Ellis’ first game on Friday, while coaches from Kansas State and Wichita State will watch on Tuesday. Georgetown, who has also gotten involved in his recruitment, will watch Perry on December 13th.
A coach from La Salle was into watch Davon Reed ’13 of Princeton Day School (NJ) play this weekend. Reed has solid interest from the Explorers and currently has an offer from VCU.
Louisville Head Coach Rick Pitino was in to watch Upper Room Christian (NC) guard Rodney Purvis ’12 play this weekend. Purvis recently visited campus unofficially and attended a game at the new KFC Yum Center. A few days before that, Kentucky assistant Orlando Antigua was in to watch Purvis play.
One weekend after taking an unofficial visit to Louisville, Shabazz Muhammad ’12, a shooting guard out of Bishop Gorman (NV) was on the North Carolina campus this weekend. He attended the Tar Heels game against Kentucky, which they won by two. Both schools are recruiting the talented shooting guard from Nevada.
A member of the Kansas staff was in attendance for 2012 big man Tony Parker’s game on Saturday night. Parker, who plays for Miller Grove (GA) faced one of the top three teams in the country, Milton (GA), which features more than six high major players. Miller Grove pulled off the upset and Parker dropped 20 points in front of the latest school to get involved in his recruitment. He had 28 points and 21 rebounds the night before; this first 20-20 game of his career.
Stefan Jankovic, Darrick Wood and Negus Webster-Chan of Huntington Prep (WV) all took unofficial visits to Louisville this weekend. Webster-Chan commented on the visit by saying, “I like it. It’s nice. The arena feels like an NBA arena & the fans are good.” Jankovic and Sim Bhullar recently transferred to Huntington from Kiski Prep.
Maurice Watson ‘12, a point guard from Boy’s Latin (PA), was in attendance for the Boston-Bucknell game last night. Both schools are recruiting him and Watson is currently on an unofficial visit to Bucknell.
6-5 Grant Ellis transferred to Bloomfield Tech from St. Benedict’s Prep, making it five transfers from St. Ben’s this year.
(Photo courtesy HoopDoctors.com)
amoll / December 12, 2010
For the record Adam, that little site called thehoopdoctors.com does know what a National LOI is. Actually it’s not that little. In any event, a LOI comes from the player, not the school.
Information we got for our piece on Adrian Moore came from both the family and the writers at MiddleschoolElite.com where the original story came from. We never wrote that he was offered a scholarship or that he committed, just that he recieved a letter from Baylor. You even wrote that the family was originally confused upon recieving the letter. It’s just an interesting piece on a talented youngster who amazingly dunked in 6th grade and should be on everyone’s radar in the future.
We are big fans of Zagsblog, especially myself in particular, so no need to slam our site or question our intelligence on HS recruiting. If you ever want to have a “friendly” debate on anything involving hoops, visit our site and drop us a line or comment on an article. Keep up the good work.
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