Final decision may be coming soon for Madison Memorial's Blue
posted by Mark Miller at 7/14/2009
By Mark Miller
Wishoops.net Editor The many twists and turns of the Vander Blue recruitment saga may be coming to an end.
Competing in the NY2LA Sports Summer Jam Monday in Mequon, Blue and his mentor Shelton Kingcade both indicated the high-flying 6-foot-3 guard from Madison Memorial is leaning toward making a final decision on which college he will attend either later this month or early in August.
“The projected goal right now is to make the decision either before he competes in the Las Vegas tournament later this month, or when he gets back in early August,” Kingcade said.
However, both Blue and Kingcade also said there is still a chance the returning first-team all-state selection might wait until November to make a decision, which would allow him to take official visits to schools in September and October.
“It will be either in the next few weeks or I will wait until November and take some official visits,” Blue said. “I’m kind of leaning toward doing it in early August.”
Both Blue and Kingcade said several new schools have extended scholarship offers since Blue officially re-opened his recruitment last May. Blue had given a verbal commitment to play for coach Bo Ryan at the University of Wisconsin in the spring of 2008, but then held a press conference two months ago to announce he was re-opening his recruitment.
The new school making perhaps the strongest push to land Blue in recent weeks is Arizona. First-year Arizona coach Sean Miller extended an offer to Blue and is making the No. 1-ranked player among state prospects in the class of 2010 by Wishoops.net a top recruiting priority.
“Arizona has offered and UCLA is showing strong interest,” Blue said.
In addition to Arizona and Wisconsin, Kingcade said Marquette, Miami, Minnesota and Oregon State have extended scholarship offers to Blue.
Many other schools are expressing strong interest, including Georgia Tech, Indiana, Oklahoma, Oklahoma State, Syracuse, Texas and UCLA.
“Vander will consider strongly any school that makes an offer, but I think those schools expressing an interest better make an offer soon or risk being left out of the mix,” Kingcade said.
Blue is competing for the Milwaukee Spartans grassroots squad at the NY2LA Summer Jam and he drew a big crowd of collegiate coaches for his contest Monday evening, including Florida coach Billy Donovan, Minnesota coach Tubby Smith and Wisconsin’s Ryan, among many others.
Wisconsin remains heavily involved in the recruitment of Blue and the fact Blue is taking summer-school courses at Madison Memorial may be a sign the Badgers remain in good standing with the ultra-athletic wing guard. Blue also attended the Wisconsin Advanced Camp in June.
Blue averaged 16.3 points and 5.4 rebounds per game as a junior while helping Memorial to a 26-1 record and the WIAA Division 1 state championship. He was named Most Valuable Player of the WIAA Division 1 State Tournament and first-team all-state by the Associated Press and Wisconsin Basketball Coaches Association.
Comments 3
On
7/14/2009 1:16:47 PM
a fan wrote:
http://ucla.scout.com/2/879089.html I guess UCLA's interest in Blue has not hit the coast yet.
And that is understandable in the fluid nature of things.
On
7/14/2009 4:07:00 PM
Eau Claire Jimmy wrote:
Why not drag it out, who knows what school might come up with an opening late, plus who would want to pass up the chance to get flown out and visit Major D1 programs and have them all try and wow you into going to their school? The decision of what school a kid will attend is not one to be made in a day or a week or a month. He has to look at from the perspective of not only what does the school provide academically but also, "will the coach stay, what are our chances of doing well, how will this program help take my game to the next level, ect. Cut the kid some slack
On
7/15/2009 1:48:39 PM
Eau Claire Jimmy wrote:
Good, that guys post got removed
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