A source has emailed me to say the University of Illinois has received an early verbal from 6'5 rising junior Brett Melton of Mahomet-Seymour, IL. The 185-pound 2-guard was one of the players chosen by USA Basketball for their Men's Youth Developmental Team this past summer, maybe not so coincidentally coached by Larry Butler, head coach of the Illinois Warriors AAU squad. Melton is a high quality sign for Kruger, but his signing also looks to be good news for other programs searching for quality big men. Barring someone leaving the Illini, Kruger will have only one more scholarship to offer the Class of 2000. In Illinois alone, there are three big Division I prospects...two of which will not be sweeped up by the Illini now. Purdue has been mentioned with East Saint Louis' 6'8 Darius Miles in the past, and also with 6'10 Hillcrest center Reo Logan. Add to them 6'9 Andre Brown from Chicago Leo and the Boilers won't have to stray far to find a big man to fill one of the handful of scholarships available for the Class of 2000.
Hearing a lot of places now that 6'9 Nick Collison from Iowa Falls is down to Duke and Kansas. I have only heard Purdue on one list he has provided, and that was quite a long time ago (I'm still wondering if it was an error due to the list omitting Notre Dame, who has been heavily recruiting the kid for a while now). What I considered a longshot to begin with looks to be an even longer-shot at this point.
Expect a "cleaning" of the main recruiting page in the near future. The recruits for the 98-99 season will be deleted, and soon after ALL players on the main page will have their own expanded profiles. One of the most frequent questions to this site has been why some players get expanded profiles while others do not. What many people mistook as a sign of probability, was actually administrative in nature. Prospects usually got bumped into expanded profiles when sources would arise that would keep a constant flow of information coming. Also, access to game stats makes it necessary to create the expanded profiles. Regardless, after the page is reorganized, all new prospects will get their own pages. That will mean I will have to rely even more on fans to send info to keep the pages full. Which reminds me...if you have access to the basketball schedules for any of the schools of the prospects on this site, feel free to email them to me or drop me a note and I'll give you my snail mail address.
Purdue is also now being mentioned with Spiece Run 'N Slam tournament MVP Caron Butler, who could soon be transferring to Maine Central Institute, a school that must ring a bell for many Purdue followers. The 6'6 winger from Racine, WI will need the year of prep to improve his academic standing. MCI has mandatory study tables and strict curfews, which should eliminate any "distractions". If the rumor of Butler to MCI is indeed true, according Hoop Scoop, it shouldn't be hard for Keady to reach into his memory for the phone number to Coach Good. More details coming on Butler, as I spent quite a bit of time watching him in May.
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