Mid-August Pre-Weekend Notebook

Buzz Naismith Drops Knowledge

Ketchup Notebook

- Powerade Hardtop Challenge going down this weekend down at the Reggie Lewis Center.  Action starts tonight.  We'll let you know what's happening.  View Schedule.

- According to Adam Finkelstein of the New England Recruiting Report, Andrew Chrabascz ('13) of Portsmouth, RI, Cushing Academy & BABC picked up offers this Summer from UMass, Vermont, Florida Atlantic, Delaware & Jacksonville.  Also per Finkelstein, Chrabascz is currenly on a road-trip in which he is visiting the campuses of Delaware, Lehigh, Penn, & Temple.  He will visit UMass next week.

- This week, we quickly featured both UMass & UVM as schools really showing love to NE players.  With the Chrabascz news above, this trend is continuing.

- Huge shocker here...Five-Star Basketball has named Nerlens Noel the 2011 Summer Defensive Player of the Year.  Click here for full Five-Star Article.  This had to be the biggest automatic since I lost my wallet in Vegas.  If Noel hadn't won, there no doubt would have been riots & protests all over Everett and Tilton this weekend.  On another Nerlens-Note, after having played in the Nike Global Games last weekend in Oregon,the big fella will soon be headed to Venice Beach for the Boost 24 All-American Game.  Still chompin' at the bit for a list.

-  This week, ESPN released it's Updated Rankings: Top 100 Rising Seniors, Top 60 Rising Juniors, & Top 25 Rising Sophomore.  Out of the 185 players in the Rankings, 16 are New England players.  That's 9%, compared with the population of New England comprising 4.5% of America's Population.  200%...Got to be among the best, if not the best, ratios in America.  On top of that, there are a handful of New England guys who are right on the cusp.  Intoxicating trend for NE.

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