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Jabari Brown Highlights
The weekend college basketball teams can officially begin practicing doubles as one of the season's marquee recruiting weekends.
As UNLV gets set to host tonight's FirstLook 2008 at the Thomas & Mack Center, its coaches and player are also in pitch mode with prep prospects in town checking out the Rebels' program.
It started as early as Friday morning, when Lon Kruger's ball club held its first true practice of the season at the Mack. On the sidelines, seated in between injured forward Matt Shaw and Kentucky transfer Derrick Jasper, was Jabari Brown.
The 6-foot-3 backcourt prospect is considered one of the big names early on in the class of 2011. As a freshman last season he helped Richmond (Calif.) Salesian High to a 21-9 record. Brown projects out as a combo guard at the next level.
Also in town for FirstLook will be entire Corona (Calif.) High and La Verne (Calif.) High teams.
The biggest influx of prep talent in the stands will be locals.
With the Rebels' 2009 scholarships all spoken for, the coaching staff is beginning to look further down the road. The biggest local name in the Mack tonight could be 6-4, 200-pound junior guard Moses Morgan out of Palo Verde High. Ranked as a four-star product by Rivals.com, he's currently No. 68 on that recruiting site's list of the top 150 prospects in the 2010 class. He is a probable to attend this evening.
If he shows up, he'll surely be near two other locals who are already committed in Findlay Prep's Carlos Lopez and Mojave's Anthony Marshall, both of whom are on the Rivals 150 list for '09. Justin Hawkins, the Rebels' other prep commit for '09 out of Woodland Hills, Calif., will also be in attendance. Other Findlay prospects expected to be there are 6-foot-3 guard Cory Joseph (Rivals No. 110 in class of 2010, originally from Pickering, Ontario), 5-foot-9 guard of Issiah Grayson (Rivals No. 150 in class of 2010, originally from Tucker, Ga.) and 6-foot-3 senior guard Willie Hankins, originally from Los Angeles.
Two bigger bodies who will not be present are Keith 'Tiny' Gallon and Renardo Sidney. Both seniors have been rumored to be considering UNLV in recent weeks despite the fact that Kruger & Co. have no more scholarships to hand out for next season.
The front-runner for Gallon, a Houston native who plays at Oak Hill Academy in Mouth of Wilson, Va., is Oklahoma. The Sooners drew a commitment from Gallon's good pal and Houston Hoops teammate Tommy Mason-Griffin late in the summer. As for Sidney, Kruger has never spoken with the Fairfax (Calif.) High big man, regarded as one of the best in this year's senior crop.
Local prospect Johnson elsewhere tonight
Cheyenne's Elijah Johnson, rated as the No. 27 prospect in the '09 class by Rivals.com, is taking in Late Night in the Phog tonight at Allen Fieldhouse in Lawrence, Kan.
The Jayhawks appear to be atop Johnson's list along with Oklahoma, Texas and UCLA.
Another Top-25 Note
UNLV landed in yet another preseason Top-25 list on Friday, as Mike DeCourcy of the Sporting News, who is counting down his Top 40 in a running format, unveiled the Rebels as his No. 24 team in the land on Friday.
The Rebels' other Top-25 nods so far included CBSSports.com (22nd), Rivals.com (23rd), Athlon (24th) and ESPN's Andy Katz (24th).
too bad the local kid isn't knocking down the rebels door. doesn't he want to go down as a local legend? get his jersey retired? be loved by all forever?
at kansas, he's just a player....
Honestly, true_rebel_fan, I don't think the Rebels staff was pursuing Elijah much anymore after they got Anthony in the fold. There's really not much use in going after a kid without a scholarship to promise and the other schools involved are of that caliber.
Based on how the two of them played while teammates at the adidas Super 64 in July, I'd say the Rebels made out just fine with Marshall. He was explosive and played a great brand of team ball. I think Johnson's a bit more of a project than Marshall, even though he probably has an athletic edge on Anthony.
Kansas has been in on Elijah for a long time. I came here from covering the Jayhawks, and have heard his name brought up for almost two years now. He was out in Lawrence in May at the Jayhawk Invitational AAU Tournament, and I know Bill Self's personally been out here a couple times in the past few months to work on Elijah. Plus, his dad was walking around the Super 64 with a KU T-shirt on.
Trust me, UNLV did great in getting Marshall. Plus, Anthony's mentioned all the things you just did - a sense of pride in doing big things for his hometown school. Not to say Elijah doesn't think that way, but you know what I'm saying.