Thursday, June 11, 2009

He's Back

Finally some good news today for the Xavier Musketeers basketball team. Jordan Latham has renewed his commitment to XU yesterday evening. He becomes coach Mack's first official recruit as coach of the Musketeers. Latham is a Baltimore native. Congrats to Jordan, Bino Ranson, and Chris Mack for sealing this deal. According to rivals.com he is a four star forward prospect and rated #81 overall in the class of 2010. Prepstars rates him higher in their Spring 2009 edition at #53. Those rankings may go up or down depending on how he does in the NBA Players Association Top 100 camp later this month. He is described as physical forward who finishes around the rim. He will make a terrific front line addition to go with Frease and McLean in the 2010-2011 season. Shannon Russell's blog indicates schools such as Boston College and Cincinnati had interest in him. ESPN's recruiting site had other schools listed such as Marquette, Virginia Tech and Arizona expressing interest. From what I have read he seemed set on Xavier and the hiring of Bino Ranson only helped seal the deal.

A couple of quick notes about some other players Xavier has been mentioned with recently:

- Noel Johnson never made it to campus as reported widely earlier this week. The indication is XU cancelled the visit. Not really clear on why. Perhaps Justin Martin (#54 by Prepstars) is nearing a decision? J-Mart fits that 6-6/6-7 wing scorer Mack has alluded to wanting previously.

-Jake O'Brien decided to stay at Boston University. Part of me thinks Jake wanted to feel the recruiting process all over as he was hurt his senior year of high school. I don't like to discredit prospects like many do after they commit elsewhere. He would have been a fine addition as a four who can hit the long range shot.

-JD Weatherspoon is going to take several visits coming up. I think X remains near the top of his list but ACC schools are starting to wade in. He may be tempted to stay in his hometown and play with several of his current AAU team mates for Thad Matta's Buckeyes. Some programs are probably questioning JD's skill development and where he will play position wise at the next level. There is no doubt he has 'high major' athleticism.

-Brandon Spearman is a backcourt player out of Chicago the Musketeers have picked up interest from. It has been some time since the Muskies had a player on the roster from the Chicagoland era. Kevin Frey maybe? Hopefully Spearman turns out a little better than Kenny Harvey if he dons the X uni.

-Jay Canty a talented wing from North Carolina is also strongly considering X due to ties with Pat Kelsey. Most of the high majors seem to be in 'expressing interest' mode with him likely due to his innaccurate jumper.

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