Friday's Tidbits: July 17

Welcome back ladies and gentlemen to another addition of this week's tidbits. For this issue, I decided to go back to how the tidbits used to be written in the beginning of this site: seven to 10 sports stories in a row, without headlines or subject lines. We'll see how it goes....

TIDBITS

1. All is quiet on the Indiana Hoosiers basketball recruiting front, at least for now. Tom Crean and his staff continue to make their way across the nation, hoping to land the country's top talent.

Here are a few updates from a few names we've been following....

.....Kyrie Irving says it's an even playing field now in his recruiting. However, I still think IU is the slight leader. Duke and Kentucky continue to put on the heat for his committment.

....Indianapolis Pike star Marquis Teague should commit to Louisville in the next couple of weeks. How good is Teague? One-and-done to the NBA is the likely road he will travel. If he chooses the Hoosiers, something odd happened.

....I'm still waiting for 2012 standout Ron Patterson to commit to Indiana. He has let it known his high interest in Crean and the Hoosiers for sometime. It's only a matter of time....

....Hopefully Jeremy Hollowell, also in the 2012 class, will join Patterson in committing to Indiana, despite picking up a boatload of offers this past week (Illinois, Xavier, Iowa).

2. Danny Hope and the Purdue Boilermakers may have found their signal-caller of the future after picking up a committment from Sean Robinson. Robinson, a 6-5, 205 pound, dual-threat quarterback out of Rochester, Illinois, became a Boilermaker back on July 6, deciding West Lafayette was the 'best fit for his future.' He chose Purdue over 23 scholarship offers from other top-notch programs, such as Stanford, Syracuse, Wisconsin, Illinois, Iowa, Kansas, and Nebraska, among others. Robinson becomes the fifth committment for Hope and Purdue in the 2010 class. Rivals.com gives him a three-star rating.


3. Notre Dame added two more prospects this past week, as the Irish picked up commitments from linebacker Kendall Moore, out of Raleigh, North Carolina, and cornerback Spencer Boyd, from Cape Coral, Florida .

After Moore participated in Notre Dame's summer camp last month, he decided to call Charlie Weis and give his pledge to the Irish on Tuesday. He turned down offers from ACC and Big East schools, such as North Carolina State and Florida State, who went hard after the physical linebacker. Moore is regarded as a four-star prospect by Rivals.com.

Boyd, committed to the Irish early this morning (7/17), picking Notre Dame after a long recruiting circus that saw more teams jump in for his committment as he continued to impress in summer camps. He chose the Irish over offers from Georgia, Miami, Michigan, and North Carolina. Rivals.com rates Boyd as a three-star prospect.


4. Look out now, but here come the Cubs. By winning three out of their last four games, beginning before the All-Star break, the Northsiders are starting to show signs of life offensively. It's amazing it took this long, but some players are beginning to earn their paychecks, some more than others. Despite his antics, former All-Star Milton Bradley has raised his batting average 10 points in the last a few weeks, after working with new Cubs hitting coach Von Joshua. Let's see if he continues to improve in the second half. While Bradley has been slowly turning his season around, Derrek Lee has been a man on a mission. I think he heard the trade rumors a few weeks back, and realized he needed to get things going at the plate. Currently, the first baseman has 18 home runs and 58 RBIs, and owns a .287 batting average. The Cubs are now three games back in a hotly contested N.L. Central.

5. Since we're talking about baseball, I'd like to make my 2009 playoff predictions, although many things can happen between now and October. Let's take a chance at these...

A.L. Division Winners: Yankees, Tigers, Angels---Wild Card: Red Sox
N.L. Division Winners: Phillies, Cubs, Dodgers---Wild Card: Marlins

World Series Match Up: Phillies vs. Yankees

Editors note: I can't remember the last time I made correct playoff predictions for baseball. This could be a different year, though, for your boy!

6. Bishop Luers' Deshuan Thomas and South Side's Raphael Davis are the most well-known high school basketball players in the Summit City, and both will attend Big Ten schools in the coming years. But is there enough room for two most players to join in their elite status?

From multiple AAU scouting reports, Brent and Byson Scott, who will both attend Northrop High School as freshmen in the fall, have competed and done very well against many AAU teams this summer. I've been told both stand about 6-0 in height, and play the combo guard position (point guard-shooting guard). Due to impressive performances at various camps and AAU tournaments, the twins are starting to pick up interest from big time programs, such as Indiana, Purdue, etc. The Scotts attended Indiana's Midnight Madness last season, as well as competed at Tom Crean's Summer Camp a few weeks ago. While it's still early to determine how good these guys will end up, look for them this winter to make some noise, and help Northrop become relevant again in Fort Wayne high school basketball.

7. Ramblings...

....Lamar Odom is being awfully greedy right now in contract negotiations with the Los Angeles Lakers. He is seeking a five year, 50 million dollar contract, but L.A. recently made a three year, 27 million dollar offer. Of course, Odom turned down the offer, and is looking elsewhere. So much for a guy who said just a month ago that he wanted to win another championship, and would take a pay cut to do so.

.....Is Tiger Woods really going to miss the cut at the British Open? Bye-bye high ratings this weekend for ABC.

....Dwyane Wade has taken his shoe empire to Nike, leaving Converse after a five year stint. Good move on his part. Now he can attend Nike athlete appreciation parties with Kobe Bryant and LeBron James.

...Brett Favre has until July 30 to make a decision on whether or not he will play for the Vikings next season. All I can say is, it's about time.

Have a great weekend!