A rash of verbals have occurred in the past two weeks involving a few Indiana schools and a handful of Big Ten teams. Here's a few to get everyone caught up on what everyone else is doing...Minnesota has added a couple of top 100 caliber players to the roster recently. 6'8 forward Michael Bauer from Hastings, MN has verballed and will probably see time at both forward positions. Bauer has been ranked in the top 200 for a while, but had a very good Nike Camp and ended the camp ranked as a top 5 forwards. Clem also got another in-state verbal from 6'6, 230lb. WF Shane Schilling of Minnetonka, MN. Schilling is ranked as the #30 prospect in his class by Bob Gibbons and averaged 27 points and 8.4 rebounds per game last season.
Speaking of Minnesota kids, rumor has it that Northwestern is looking very good to get a verbal soon from Minneapolis guard Ben Johnson. The 6'3 prospect, ranked around the top 150, visited Northwestern on Thursday. Seton Hall and Michigan State are also said to be interested in Johnson.
The Yugoslavian pipeline continues to pump in kids to Ohio State. The latest to go is 7'3 Aleksandar Radojevic from Barton County CC in Kansas. Radojevic will be on the floor for the 99-00 season and will have two years of eligibility. Radojevic is also predicted to be the best center in junior college, and is rated by Hoop Scoop as one of the top 3 players overall in junior college. Losing out on the big man were UAB, Kansas, Kentucky, Marquette, St. John's and TCU. It will be worth the time watching Ohio State games in the future just to see the announcers stumble through the names Radojevic, Okacoljic and Savovic.
Recker to Michigan State!!! The latest in the Luke Recker to ???? saga, you ask? Not quite. Luke's younger sister Maria Recker has verballed to the Spartans' women's program. The 5'10 senior sharpshooter from Dekalb will join the Spartans and will likely see plenty of time at the 2-guard. Recker averaged 16.7 points as a junior and 18.8 as a sophomore.
The Ball State women will be getting the services of the state's #1 scorer last year, 5'10 senior Laurie Kitts from my alma mater Eastbrook High just outside of Marion, IN. Another 2-guard candidate, Kitts averaged 28.5 points to lead the state in scoring last year. Kitts chose the Cardinals over Wright State, Taylor and Valpo.
The Valpo men continue to reap the benefits of a deep run in the NCAA tournament with the verbal committment of 6'7 Lubos Barton of the Czech Republic. The top 100 caliber recruit cancelled a visit to Cal and verballed to Valparaiso last week. Barton is academically qualified.
Another prospect who shouldn't have any trouble in the classroom is Evansville North's 6'2 Nick Baumgart. He also won't have to travel far on holidays to get back home from college, as he plans to attend the University of Evansville on scholarship.