July 10, 2012

Mike Pegram
Peegs.com Staff Writer

While it may lack a little of the star power of last July, the adidas Invitational should be another great event for college coaches and Hoosier fans in central Indiana. Games will be played at various gyms stretching from the north side of Indianapolis to Noblesville.

The event will again be headquartered at North Central High School. Super Pools, where proven teams are grouped to just play for seeding, will highlight the first few days and provide some terrific games to kick off the event.

This year the NCAA made some alterations to the recruiting calendar and July is no longer a pair of 10-day evaluation periods. Instead four days were added in April and July will now have a trio of four day evaluation periods for college coaches. The first period begins Wednesday at 5 p.m. and runs through Sunday at 5 p.m. The adidas Invitational schedule has been adjusted accordingly.

Highlighting the early Super Pool action is a 17 & under pool that will include the Eric Gordon All-Stars team that includes Hoosier commits Devin Davis and Collin Hartman. That EG 17 is in the same pool with the Mass Rivals team featured the No. 3 overall player in the Class of 2014, 6-foot-8 forward Noah Vonleh. The New Hampshire native is an Indiana target that recently took an unofficial visit to Bloomington. The other teams in that loaded pool are the always tough Atlanta Celtics and Memphis Magic Elite.

The 16 & under action will be spiced up by the appearance of the Louisville Magic team that has proven itself as one of the top national teams in that age group. This weekend Shane Hall (see recent Peegs.com feature) joins this team led by highly sought after point guard D'Angelo Russell, another prospect on our Indiana 2014 hot board.

Other hot board prospects in this age group include Greensburg guard Bryant McIntosh and big power forward Jarred Reuter.

The sophs-to-be or 15 & under age group has the most prospects on the Indiana recruiting horizon since most of those players are still very open on their college destinations. The team to beat in that group is probably the Indiana Elite/Team Indiana squad led by high major target Hyron Edwards. The East Chicago Central point guard led that club team to a perfect spring before the Eron Gordon led Eric Gordon All-Stars knocked them off Memorial Day weekend at the Best Buy Classic near Chicago. Both of those teams are in Super Pools this week.

It's a tradition here at Peegs.com to provide a detailed and easily printable prospect schedule for Hoosier fans for any event in Indiana. We began compiling that last night after the pool schedules were released. This Google spreadsheet is linked below as a guide for any IU fans that might make it to the various venues and keep in mind it will likely have an update or two before play begins tomorrow afternoon:

Peegs.com adidas Invitational prospect guide

This guide only includes pool play games. There will be some tournament games for the oldest two age groups beginning mid-afternoon on Friday.

For the full schedule including details on gym locations, check out the adidas Invitational home page

Other first period events

The adidas Invitational is just one of many events running during the first four-day evaluation period. Later today we'll have more on all that's going on for the nation's top prep talent including those Indiana prospects and signees that won't be in Indy this week.