BEVERLY HILLS (MI) — In an analogy that I have alluded to many times before, college hoops recruiting is nothing more than salesmanship on the part of the head coach and his staff. And as anyone in sales can tell you, in order to be successful you must maintain a sales funnel of prospects in various stages of the process. When one possibility falls by the wayside, you add another to the top of the funnel; if one ‘closes’ then you drop the other candidates you have pitched for that opportunity. And so on.

Archie and Company are smack dab in the middle of setting up official visits and lining up those three (or four) guys who they want to sign on the line which is dotted come November. Names like big man Angel Delgado who recently gave a verbal to Seton Hall; SG Riley LaChance from Wisconsin who shortened his list and cut UD and Vince Edwards of Middletown, who according to Verbal Commits, has “High Interest” in Michigan and Purdue but only “Medium Interest” in UD are off Archie’s Big Board.

Add in guys like:

Josh Cunningham, a teammate of freshman Kyle Davis at Chicago Morgan Park:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pDp4sBbps3Q&feature=youtu.be

Brady Ellingson, an elite shooter from Wisconsin:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aC_ZuInOtJY

To the mix that already includes Ryan Luther, Javon Bess, Bryan McIntosh, Darrell Davis, Jalen Hudson and Peyton Aldridge and now it’s just a matter of getting these guys on the UD campus and closing the deal.

Elsewhere:

— In a rare freebie from The DDN, Arch covers the fundraiser to help send Arlena Smith to Roger Brown’s induction into the Basketball Hall of Fame. Smith and her husband Azariah took in Roger Brown after he got booted from UD:

http://www.daytondailynews.com/blogs/content/shared-gen/blogs/dayton/throughthearch/entries/2013/08/17/roger_brown_dayton_did_him_pro.html/

— Former Flyer London Warren averaged 19 PPG for Obudai Kaszasok in the Hungarian League, minus his dreads:

http://basketball.eurobasket.com/player/London_Warren/Obudai_Kaszasok-TF/116588

— The Prep Ball Report covers Detroit-area hoopsters. Their July evaluation period coverage includes a profile of the aforementioned Darrell Davis:

http://theprepballreport.com/2013/08/01/july-evaluation-report/

— College Chalk Talk continues their Atlantic 10 feature called “One Thing to Watch” with profiles on:

St. Joe: http://collegechalktalk.com/2013/08/07/one-thing-to-watch-saint-josephs/

LaSalle: http://collegechalktalk.com/2013/07/30/one-thing-to-watch-la-salle/

Duquesne: http://collegechalktalk.com/2013/07/28/one-thing-to-watch-duquesne/

UD: http://collegechalktalk.com/2013/08/05/one-thing-to-watch-dayton/

— Luke Winn at Sports Illustrated takes a detailed look at the transfer phenomenon and concludes that those who switch high schools end up changing colleges as well:

http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/college-basketball/news/20130801/college-basketball-transfer-study/

— ESPN.com’s Summer Shootaround on the A-10 includes a blurb about UD’s Jordan Sibert:

http://espn.go.com/ncb/notebook/_/page/summershootaround130806/atlantic-10

— College coaches need to remember that social media is a two-way street, as is illustrated in the case of Dominic Magee, a prospect who re-tweeted messages he got from Alabama, Colorado, Oklahoma and Oklahoma State:

http://collegebasketballtalk.nbcsports.com/2013/08/06/three-star-recruit-dominic-magee-tweets-texts-messages-from-oklahoma-state-alabama-oklahoma-colorado-coaches/

— Hard to believe that it has been twenty years since Reggie Lewis left us:

http://espn.go.com/boston/nba/story/_/id/9510589/remembering-reggie-lewis-20-years-tragic-death

That’s it “From the Swamp.”
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