BREAKING NEWS: First Recruit of the Class of 2015 Chooses AU Over Patriot League Rivals, Georgetown

 Image courtesy New England Recruiting Report

Rivals announced today that Kyle Kager, a 6'7" forward attending prep school in Deerfield, MA has chosen to play at AU starting with the 2011-2012 campaign. Although he still has to make an official visit, and an official announcement cannot come until November, he appears to be solidly on our verbal commit list on both Rivals and ESPN.

I actually saw Kyle touring campus today, accompanied by Kieran Donohue, Lamar Barrett, and Matt Wolff. It was immediately apparent that he was someone we wanted, because the attention being heaped on him was pretty significant.

 Image courtesy Deerfield Academy

Kager also received offers from Holy Cross, Lehigh, and Furman. He was also being recruited by Big East teams Georgetown and Providence, the latter of which was on his top 3 final choices. He credits AU's strong out-of-conference schedule (thanks Coach Jones!),  coaching staff, training program, campus, and academics as his reason for committing early. It thrills me that not only did he choose us over those purple knuckle-draggers in Worcester, but the defending Patriot League Champions.

Although Kager has no stars on Rivals, a 40 on ESPN, and has yet to appear on Scout.com, he is described as "a versatile player who can face up the basket to make jumpers or play on the interior", which is going to be crucial when we lose Vlad to graduation after this season. He looks like a long, quick big, the type that usually does pretty well under Coach Jones (he currently weighs in at 193 lbs, with plenty of time to add a little muscle). He was also on the Team Texas Elite 17U team, along with commits to Texas A&M and Kansas State. While he may not be the most lauded recruit at the moment, had Kager decided to pursue a Big East team more vigorously, I'm sure some rankings would already be out, and we will likely see some as he enters his senior year. We'll be sure to let you know if anything pops up.

On a related note, Kager specifically cited our upcoming matchups versus "Maryland, Florida, and West Virgina." For those keeping track, Maryland was not previously announced in the draft schedule we got our hands on a few weeks ago. Final negotiations with Gary Williams are likely a big reason that our schedule has not yet come out, so stay tuned for more as we find it.

Finally, make sure to keep up with the latest on Kager, and more Eagles recruiting news, on our new Message Board!

Pro Deo Et Patria and GO EAGLES,
Josh

UPDATE: Although completely unrelated to Kager, it's worth noting that the deadline for Stephen Lumpkins to sign with the Pittsburgh Pirates passed on August 16th. He will remain with the Eagles this season, although he is still draft eligible.