BEVERLY HILLS (MI) — When a team has as much difficulty as the current Dayton Flyers do in ‘putting the biscuit in the basket’ (to borrow a hockey term) can you blame BG if he is actively looking for shooters to fill the five available scholarships in the Class of 2010? UD is off to an auspicious start in that regard, with the verbal commitment by Dayton Thurgood Marshall PG deluxe Juwan Staten. One of the prime targets for one of the other four full rides is a young man out of defending State Champion Knoxville (TN) Fulton HS, 6’2” 185 lb. SG Jalen Steele.

What do we know about Jalen Steele? Here is what we were able to ascertain:

— USA Today video on Jalen, in which he specifically mentions Dayton as a team that is showing him attention:

http://video.aol.com/video-detail/jalen-steele-impressing-college-scouts/1157117075

There are about 10 versions of this video online and each of them was shaky, so sorry for the poor quality…the problem is not in your computer.

— As a matter of fact, UD was the very first D-1 university to offer Steele a scholarship:

http://fultonfalcons.blogspot.com/2008/07/recruiting-of-fulton-basketball.html

BTW, Jalen unofficially visited UD with his folks for the Red and Blue scrimmage in November.

— Clark Francis at PoopScoop has Jalen ranked as the #140 player in the class of 2010.

— The kid is a gym rat, with a Chris Wright-like work ethic that will fit right in with this Flyer bunch:

http://www.knoxnews.com/news/2008/Apr/23/steele-went-wright-way-was-ironman-for-fulton/

— Jalen excelled this past summer in the Rocky Top League, which is similar to Cincy’s Deveroes League in that it includes college and ex-college stars, but different in that the RTL also allows HS players (Jalen was one of only three) and actually holds a player draft. Here are 3 different links on the Rocky Top League:

http://test.tnprephoops.com/index2.php?option=com_content&do_pdf=1&id=767

http://blog.hatenite.com/?p=25

http://www.rockytopbasketballleague.com/content/view/12/26/

— Knoxville area players to watch:

http://www.knoxnews.com/news/2008/nov/14/111408boysplayers/

— Message Board chatter about Jalen Steele…gotta like the comments on his character and work ethic:

http://tennessee.coacht.com/boards/index.php?showtopic=186325

— Fulton HS’s game scheduled for January 3rd was postponed due to a scoreboard malfunction.

— It appears Jalen can stroke the freebies at crunch time, as he was 6-6 in the 4th quarter of Fulton’s latest victory over Karns HS:

http://www.knoxnews.com/news/2009/jan/06/fulton-uses-defense-free-throws/

— A complete list of everything ever written about Jalen Steele in the Knoxville News:

http://www.knoxnews.com/search/?q=jalen+steele&sortby=date&sources=site

— And finally, the heartwarming story of Jalen’s Fulton HS teammate, Zay Zay Bowden:

http://www.knoxnews.com/news/2008/nov/14/111408boysplayers/

Bottom line: Young Mr. Steele can score; he’s a leader and a high-character kinda kid. In short, he is most assuredly the type of player we want in our program.

Feel free to give BG a verbal any time now, Jalen!

That’s it “From the Swamp.”
You can email me at: [email protected]