The madness is coming....

Tonight is a big night for Hoyas hoops. While nothing will be won or lost on the court, future championships could be in the balance. The Hoyas will have some of the top recruits in the nation on campus tonight. We have mentioned how the consensus #1 recruit in the country, Greg Monroe, will be in attendance. But other future Hoya stars will be as well. Gus Gilchrist, who was supposed to attend Virginia Tech this year but reneged after the tragic shooting there, will be taking in the festivities. Rumors have swirled that he could be eligible to play this year and could join the team in January. Gilchrist is a late-blooming big man (about 6'9, 240) who I saw play a bit over the summer. He would be a nice back-up for big Roy, as a 4-star, top 100 recruit. Also from the class of 2008 will be Renaldo Woolridge, a wing from Harvard Westlake, the Los Angeles alma mater of several of our Georgetown classmates. He, like Gilchrist, is a solid top 100 recruit, but it is unclear whether GU has offered to both him and Monroe, as they are similar players.

There will be a ton of 2009 and 2010 recruits there too, but I'm just going to mention a few more (all 2009):

• DaShonte Riley. As I noted here before, Riley is very high on the Hoyas and he is an absolute stud out of Chicago. There are a lot of people who think a commitment could be forthcoming.
• Hollis Thompson: A top 25 player out of Los Angeles. He's a 6'6 small forward.
• Terrell Vinson: A top 25 player our of Baltimore. He's a 6'5 small forward.
• Isaiah Armwood: A top 10 player out of Baltimore (Montrose Christian of Harvey Thomas, Tony Bethel, and Drew Hall fame -- as well as Sweaty Gary's Greivous Vazquez and Jeff Green's teammate Kevin Durant, among others). He's a 6'7 power forward.
• Karron Johnson: A top 10 player out of Durham, North Carolina. He's a 6/7 small forward.

Of course those three commits for 2008 will also be there: Chris Braswell, Henry Sims, and Jason Clark.

JTIII never ceases to amaze me with what a tireless recruiter he is. If you don't like that job, I guess you shouldn't be in the business. But GU doesn't have that many open spaces and yet he never stops recruiting. I do think (having watched both play) that the recruitment of both Omar and Nikita will be the source of some discussion down the road. I don't know if Omar is on scholarship, but this summer he didn't look like a player would could be in the gym with any of these guys. Nikita, on the other hand, was clearly an overlooked gem. His outside shot is as good as I've ever seen from a freshman (and that includes Wallace three years ago). With the right coaching, he could be a key role player in JTIII's sytem. Anyway, it will be interesting to see how this all shakes out. I wouldn't mind seeing Greg Monroe in the blue & gray (and any of these other recruits either!)......