CSZ Basketball Recruiting Notebook 8/18/14

By Justin Renck and Steve Rummage:

In our basketball recruiting notebook, we fill you in on where the Cards stand with their top targets in the class of 2015. This week we remove two targets off the board as well as add a new face. Enjoy this week’s notebook!

Point Guard

 Donovan Mitchell (Commit) – Mitchell had another impressive week, leading his East team to the Nike Global Challenge Finals. In Friday’s Semi-Final, Mitchell put up 12 points, 4 rebounds, 3 assists, 1 block, and 1 steal in a win against the South team featuring Antonio Blakeney and Jaylen Brown. Now Mitchell will turn his attention to the Elite 24 game on August 23rd. -Steve Rummage

 Tyler Dorsey –  The former UCLA commit cut his list to 10 this week and Louisville was one of those teams. The 5-star guard says he will attend one of the following colleges next year: Arizona St., Cal, CU, G’Town, Kansas, Louisville, Oregon, St. John’s, UConn and UNLV. We have been reluctant to add Dorsey to the CSZ Notebook this summer as we like to keep only the players we feel actually could land here on the list. After de-committing from UCLA this summer, Dorsey mentioned Louisville as one of the schools he was interested in and had great things to say about Pitino and the Cards. Not much really materialized after that between Dorsey and Louisville. Now with the targets left and Dorsey having Louisville in the final list, I would say the race for the final Louisville 2015 scholarship is between Dozier, Dorsey, and Blakeney. As of now, Oregon and Kansas are the only schools set up to receive vists but we will have more on Dorsey as the week goes on. -Steve Rummage

 PJ Dozier  – We have been saying that Dozier sets on top of Pitino’s wish list and we still believe that to be the case. Dozier will be in Louisville on August 31st and plans to be here for the Miami football game. Look for Louisville to lay out the red carpet that day for Dozier and as we know, atmosphere should not be a problem. The Cards will more than likely try to lock up the 6’6 guard that weekend and avoid letting Dozier get to the UNC and South Carolina campuses. Even though the Cards have options, I still predict (and want) to see Dozier in a Louisville uniform unless someone pops before……your move Blakeney. -Steve Rummage

Shooting Guard

 Antonio Blakeney – Blakeney spent this last week playing in the Nike Global Challenege, representing Team USA South. He scored 24 points in the first game as USA South beat Pan Africa 121-116. He had 15 points in the second game as China defeated USA South 114-100. He had 19 points in a 114-100 loss to USA East. And in a 102-96 win over Canada, he totalled 18 points. As far as where the Cards stand with him, I would say that last scholarship (if available) is down to Blakeney and Dozier for now. Dozier actually has a visit planned to campus, and that is the weekend of the Miami football game. As of right now, Blakeney still doesn’t have a UofL visit planned, but that could change soon. From what I am told, his top two are Louisville and Kentucky. -Justin Renck

 Prince Ali –  Prince Ali committed to play for UCLA over the weekend. The Bruins were the perceived leader for awhile now, but Ali had a visit set up to Louisville on September 6th. That visit won’t occur now. -Steve Rummage

 Dwayne Bacon – Bacon released his final list of 10 this weekend and the Cards were not on it. Auburn, FSU, Ga Tech, G’town, Ok State, SMU, Tennessee, UNLV, USC, USF were the teams to make the cut. As we have been saying the last few weeks, Bacon seemed to be slipping down the Cards list when Pitino didn’t spend much time seeing him in the latter part of the summer. -Steve Rummage

Small Forward

 Deng Adel (Commit)-  Deng Adel’s summer season seems to be over and the 5-star SF will now prepare for his upcoming High School season.  -Steve Rummage

 Derrick Jones – There hasn’t been much to report on Jones in the last few notebooks, but theres is for this one. In this past week, Jones announced who his final 9 schools are: UConn, Kansas, Kentucky, Florida, Louisville, North Carolina, Arizona, Auburn, and UNLV. According to Adam Zagoria, the only home visit is with UConn on September 10. His dad told sny.tv that they also plan to visit Louisville, Kansas, Kentucky, and Auburn, among others. As I have said before, with two front-court players already committed, I will be surprised if Jones were to end up a Card. But as long as a visit is still planned, that is reason enough to keep him on our weekly notebook. -Justin Renck

Power Forward

 Raymond Spalding (Commit)-  Nothing new to report here. Spalding’s great summer has come to an end, and now he just prepares for his senior season at Trinity High School. -Justin Renck