Action Plentiful in NJ
Thursday, July 19th, 2007
The first 10 day July Live Period and I know I feel like most of the college coaches and I am exhausted and glad to get a little break. I was fortunate that most of the action was local. As Marist Head Coach Matt Brady said: “New Jersey was the epicenter of the college basketball recruiting world the past two weeks.” That is true especillay when you add in the Reebok U camp that was held just across the river at Philadelphia University.
Scores of college coaches stayed in the Garden State the entire period. The period started with Session 2 of Eastern Invitational Camp at the College of NJ. Eastern Camp stresses Instruction and competition as well as the high level of exposure. For myself, the camp staff and the players it actually started the day before the live period began, with tryout games and the player draft. Early morning on day 2 of camp there were already over 100 college coaches signed in to get a look at all the prospects at the loaded camp. The camp was so deep that many scholarship players were not selected to any all star teams.
The action continued at the College of NJ with the 64 team Eastern Invitational Team Camp. Teams from throughout the east were competing in front of the college coaches.
The Reebok U camp bridged the two camps and at only an hour away many coaches jockeyed back and forth between the College of NJ and Philadelphia.
The next attraction was the Reebok Summer Classic at Rider University. The first major east coast AAU event was also held in the Garden State.
This was also a Hoop Group event. How is this for options for the high school basketball player. They held their first class individual camp, the high school team event and AAU event all in state and were all tremendous exposure vehicles.
Late in the week saw Eastern Invitational start another session of camp at the College of NJ and another AAU Tournament. The Joe Brown Memorial Tournament was held this past weekend at Seton Hall University and featured another strong lineup of AAU teams.
Just a few of the well known College Head Coaches we saw that flew into New Jersey the past two weeks included:
Billy Donovan - Florida
Thad Matta - Ohio State
Bob Huggins - West Virginia
John Calipari - Memphis
Tom Crean - Marquette
Billie Gillespie - Kentucky
Jamie Dixon - Pittsburgh
Sean Miller - Xavier
John Beilein - Michigan
Jim Larranaga - George Mason
Kelvin Sampson - Indiana
It would be very difficult to find a Division 1 school in the east that did not have a coach in New Jersey during this time.
Coverage of all these events and much more in NJ Hoops Newsletter and njhoops.com