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Tuesday, June 23, 2009 1:26 p.m.

Women’s basketball announces recruiting class

by Dan Greene

The GW women’s basketball team officially announced its incoming recruiting class for the upcoming season today, one that includes four guards and a 6-foot-2 post player.

A pair of point guards ranked among ESPN’s 20 best at the position in this year’s class serve as the centerpieces. Five-foot-three Danni Jackson is ranked the 77th best recruit overall by ESPN and was named to the Washington Post’s All-Met First Team in April. Janine Davis, a 5-foot-8 guard from Jamaica, N.Y., is described by GW head coach Mike Bozeman as a “combo guard” and helped her high school, St. Michael Academy, finish seventh in USA Today’s national rankings.

Joining Jackson and Davis in the backcourt will be a pair of taller guards, 5-foot-10 Shi-Heria Shipp and 6-footer Megan Nipe. Shipp hails from North Carolina and was named Rowan County Player of the Year as a senior and was an all-county selection three times. Nipe, a native of Lino Lakes, Minn., is ranked 34th among guards by ESPN and twice earned all-state honors from the state’s high school coaches and St. Paul Pioneer Press, respectively. She also played alongside current Colonial Kay-Kay Allums in high school.

Nicole Shelton, a New Jersey native that most recently played at Connecticut’s Kent School, is the Colonials’ lone incoming post player. Shelton is 6-foot-2 and helped Kent complete an undefeated season during her senior year.

The full press release is available here.

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Wednesday, May 6, 2009 2:34 p.m.

Branch released from LOI, Pellom and Warren signed

by Dan Greene

Men’s basketball recruit Kinley Branch, who had committed to GW in the fall, has been released from his commitment, according to his high school coach.

Andrew Sullivan, men’s basketball head coach at Branch’s Stone Mountain High School in Georgia, said this afternoon that Branch signed a National Letter of Intent to play for the Colonials, but has since been freed from the contract.

“From what I understand, GW has given him his release,” Sullivan said. “So it looks to me like he won’t be coming there.”

Sullivan said that as far as he is aware, the Colonials simply opted to go in another direction. Branch is currently being recruited by up to 30 schools, he said, including teams from the SEC and Ohio Valley Conference.

“There’s a market out there for tall guys that can shoot,” he said.

In other recruiting news, Charis Prep headmaster Carlos Peralta confirmed that David Pellom, a 6-foot-8 forward, has signed a National Letter of Intent, a firmer commitment than the verbal agreement reported in the fall. Daymon Warren, another 6-foot-8 forward that verbally committed in the fall, has also signed a LOI, his head coach at Worcester Academy, Edward Reilly, said.

Update, 2:38 p.m. To put this in a bit more context, the numbers now all seem to add up for GW’s scholarship count. After the team’s most recent commitment, there appeared to be 14 scholarships doled out – one above the limit of 13 – but with Branch no longer coming this fall, the Colonials are back at 13.

Update, 3:31 p.m. Tim Johnson, a 6-foot-4 guard from Lee Academy in Maine who verbally committed in March, has also signed a LOI to play for GW in the fall, according to his head coach, Jim Graffam. He said Johnson sent in the letter April 27.

Graffam also provided a bit of a scouting report on Johnson, calling him a “six-four jumping jack” that is “getting better and better” over time.

“He’s electric to watch,” Graffam said. “He blocks shots on the perimeter, he can block shots inside, he can dunk with ease, and he’s gotten to the point where he’s very confident shooting the threes.”

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Tuesday, May 5, 2009 1:30 p.m.

Yet another men’s basketball commitment reported

by Dan Greene

The Miami Herald reported Friday that Bryan Bynes, a 6-foot-3 guard nicknamed “Kobe” and known for his “high-wire dunk act,” will be playing at GW this fall. Bynes played for Boyd Anderson High School, which was ranked as high as 14th nationally in the ESPN Rise poll.

As the Herald notes, Bynes averaged 17 points, five rebounds and four assists in his senior season. ESPN.com grades him as an 86 – seemingly a common mark for Colonials recruits – and describes him as “thin” (and lists him at 170 pounds) but explosive and willing to attack the rim. Check out his full stats, albeit somewhat different from the Miami Herald, at MaxPrep.

Given the six other reported commitments, the numbers game is getting interesting with next year’s Colonials team. Even after the transfer of freshman Matt Allbritton, GW now reportedly has one too many players on the way to fit next year’s scholarship availability, likely indicating that someone isn’t coming or someone else is leaving.

Stick with The Hatchet for more recruiting updates over the next week.

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Wednesday, April 15, 2009 7:33 p.m.

Former GW commit Jeremy Wise declares for NBA draft

by Andrew Alberg

Southern Miss point guard Jeremy Wise, a junior, announced his intention to declare for June’s NBA Draft, but said he will not sign an agent. Wise reportedly committed to GW upon leaving high school, but had his offer rescinded amid the investigation into GW head coach Karl Hobbs’ recruitment of players with substandard academic backgrounds.

Wise averaged 16.7 points per game last year for the Golden Eagles.

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Wednesday, April 8, 2009 12:02 p.m.

Men’s, women’s recruits named to Post’s All-Met teams

by Dan Greene

Women’s basketball recruit Danni Jackson and men’s recruit Lasan Kromah, both reportedly heading Foggy Bottom in the fall, were named to the Washington Post’s All-Met teams today. Jackson, described by the paper as a “5-foot-3 dynamo” guard, made the All-Met First Team while Kromah earned the honor for Prince George’s County’s 4-A, the conference in which the Greenbelt, Md. native competes.

Also worth pointing out is the fact that Jackson, as listed by the Post, has twice been named the the Virginia AAA Northwest Region player of the year. Here’s an interesting feature on her from March of last year, where she is again described as a “5-foot-3 dynamo” and says she “never thought [she'd] be this good at basketball.”

UPDATE: Kromah was also named to the All-Met Fourth Team, which I neglected to mention last time. The Post also has video of Jackson and the other First-Teamers answering a few questions about themselves.

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Tuesday, March 17, 2009 7:11 p.m.

Another recruit joins the men’s fold

by Dan Greene

The Washington Post reported yesterday that Lasan Kromah, a 6-foot-5 shooting guard from Greenbelt, Md., committed to play for GW next year. Kromah is a senior at Greenbelt’s Eleanor Roosevelt High School, where he recently scored 15 points in Maryland’s 4A South Region final (which Roosevelt lost).

Check out Kromah, number 20 in powder blue, in action here (and here, here, and here) at Eleanor Roosevelt and some interviews with the newest Colonial after leading his team to victory. ESPN Rise had a story on him a few weeks back, which mentions that he hits nearly 45 percent of his three-point attempts and was averaging 21 points and eight boards a contest at the time of its writing. Impressive stuff.

Kromah is the sixth reported GW commitment for next fall, joining Tim Johnson, Kinley Branch, David Pellom, Dwayne Smith and Damon Warren to form a crowded crop of newcomers. The scholarship numbers mean Kromah’s signing has an interesting implication: the Colonials currently have five scholarships available for next season and six freshmen reported to be entering the program. This means that at least one of the recruits is no longer on their way to Foggy Bottom this fall, at least one current Colonial is on his way out, or possibly both. We will try to have more for you on this as the situation progresses.

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