BIG EAST RECRUITING UPDATE: DEPAUL

September 22, 2006


VERBAL COMMITMENT ALERT: Darquavis Tucker, (SG) Arthur Hill HS,Saginaw, MI.


It has been rather quiet around the Big East in regards to recruiting news, but DePaul broke that silence yesterday with a BOOM by landing a verbal commitment from Darquavis Tucker. The commitment of Tucker is covered by the Daily Herald: Michigan Product Commits to DePaul.


Projected 2007-2008 Roster:

Seniors: Draelon Burns (SG), Cliff Clinkscales (PG), Karron Clarke (WF), Wes Green (C)
Juniors: Jabarie Currie (SG), Wilson Chandler (PF), Matija Poscic (F)
Sophomores: Will Walker (PG), Thijin Moses (F)
Freshmen: Darquavis Tucker (SG)



Jerry Wainwright and his staff, led by Gary DeCesare, have been very busy on the recruiting trail this spring and summer and have the Blue Demons involved with many players that should be quality players in the Big East. With three more scholarships to give in the class of 2007, they still have a lot of work to do on the recruiting trail this fall.

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With the commitment from Tucker, DePaul landed a player built for the Big East. Tucker is nearly a 6'5 shooting guard, but he excels at slashing to the basket and using his strong frame to overpower other perimeter players. He is also an outstanding rebounding guard. He chose the Blue Demons over Cincinnati, Indiana, Illinois and Miami. Earlier in the process, we thought he was one of Louisville's top targets as well. He joins Highland Community College forward Matija Poscic in the 2007 class. Poscic is a tammate of Tucker's older brother, Ed. Tucker played AAU ball with the Michigan Hurricanes, a program that also recently produced Wilson Chandler and Jabari Currie, so he has a familiarity with the DePaul program.



Target numero-uno for Jerry Wainwright and staff is Boys to Men Academy's Nyal 'Mac' Koshwal, a 6'8, 235 lb power forward who the Daily Herlad reports that DePaul is closing in on and I feel it is only a matter of time before he officially commits to the Blue Demons. Koshwal's guardian is Boys to Men Academies head coach Loren Jackson, who is also the guardian for Thijin Moses. Although Koshwal seems to keep his options close to the vest, it is widely perceived that DePaul leads for the interior horse with Louisville and Tennessee the only other two under 'consideration'. With only the inconsistent Wesley Green on the projected roster as an interior offensive threat, Wainwright has made Koshwal priority #1 from the start of the 2007 recruiting and the playing time is definitely available to him from the beginning.



With the late addition of the long and lean Thijin Moses to the 2006 class, there does not seem to be a big push to add a wing. They were very aggressive in trying to get a wing in the 2006 class and with the decommitment of Manual Cass (more of a combo forward, anyway) and the transfer of Rashad Woods, I would have thought they would continue to explore additional wing options, but at this time, nothing seems on the immediate radar. A top early target was Evan Turner who blew up early this spring and committed to Ohio State a few weeks ago.

It looks as if the Blue Demons are also aggressively pursuing guards. At the absolute top of their list is top 5 player Derrick Rose out of Chicago and top 20 Chris Wright out of DC. Rose could be one of the first to push the envelope in challenging the new restrictions against high school players going straight to the professional ranks (with Kansas and Memphis supposedly leading as college choices) and Wright has NC St, Georgetown and Pitt among his final three.

DePaul was also spotted trailing Justin Bocot, an aggressive and athletic lead guard out of Illinois as well as NJ guard Rashon Dwight and Mustapha Farrakhan out of Chicago. The Blue Demons were disappointed when Demetri McCamey, a HS and AAU teammate of Evan Turner, parlayed their early spring AAU success into an offer, which he accepted, from Illinois. He would have been a perfect fit at DePaul, and the Big East, with his strong style of play with Will Waker in the Blue Demon future backcourt.

With a tremendous amount of local talent in the immediate area and the high profile environment of the Big East to offer recruits, it should be an exciting time to follow DePaul recruiting. With up to four more scholarships to offer this year and at least another four in the 2008 class, we should have a lot to report on out of Chicago. A great resource to also check out on Chicago and the rest of the state of Illinois high school basketball and recruiting is Illinois Prep Bulls-Eye. They do an excellent job, for free, on keeping their readers up to date on players from Illinois and the surrounding area and their recrutiting situations. We check them out often to get the scoop on who DePaul, Marquette and Notre Dame, for the most part, are checking out from the area.