Tech has recently gotten two football commits over the past 2 weeks, giving the class around 20 commits. Corey Avery should decide any day now weather he will become a Red Raider or not, and recruits like Silvester Hayes, Will Coleman, and Anthony Olobia have yet to commit. Only a few more recruits will fill out this class. Recruits and their visits are going to start to pick up in the month of October, as several have already planned their visit and others will soon do so. I will bring up those recruits again as they visit Texas Tech. Anyway, let's get this thing started with a look at two 2014 basketball Small Fowards, Kelan Martin and Javon Bess.
Kelan Martin - Small Forward / Power Forward (Ballard, Louisville, KY)
Height: 6'6" Weight: 210 lbs
Ratings: 90 by 247 / 81 by ESPN / 3-stars by Rivals
Interest: Butler (High), Texas Tech (Medium), St. Louis (Medium), Xavier (Medium)
Kelan Martin is listed in the Top150 for every recruiting site, which is always a good sign. The on thing that stood out the most for me on his film is his ability to shoot the ball, his shot has a perfect angle to it, and his execution of this is amazing. He is spot up on a dime or drive in a little and just go up from there. When he is needed in the paint, he can drive in and do some crazy lay-up moves. Also this kid isn't afraid to fight for a rebound and go up again for the score. Last week, there was a tweet sent out that stated Kelan Martin will visit Butler, Tech and St. Louis in the next few weekends. I know for sure he is visiting Butler next weekend, and my guess is that he is visiting Tech next weekend, seeing we don't have a football home game the week after homecoming. All of schools listed above offered Martin around July 14th. He is listed as both a PF and a SF, but my guess would be SF based on his height. Hope he chooses Tech.
Javon Bess - Small Forward (Gahanna Lincoln, Columbus, OH)
Height: 6'5" Weight: 185 lbs
Ratings: 83 by 247 / 77 by ESPN / 3-star by Rivals
Interest: Kansas State (Medium), Dayton (Medium), Xavier (Medium), Texas Tech (Medium),
What I like the most about Javon Bess is that he plays both side of the ball hard. Countless times in this film he traps on player to steal the ball or keeps a close eye on the ball without the ball handler knowing. It helps that he can finish too. His offense is impressive too, with definite 3-point range, the ability to drive through the lane and put back his own misses when he does so. Tech offered Javon back in August, with K-State following, and others doing so too. He has taken unofficial visits to Xavier, Dayton, and Michigan so far, which are all in or near Ohio. K-State having the first Official visit on October 12th. This kid hasn't scheduled a visit with Texas Tech yet, and I'm not sure if he will. Hopefully he will though and choose Tech.
Here are some updates on other recuits:
Football Recruiting 2014:
- Sylvester Townes committed to West Virginia Sunday after an impressive display by the Mountaineers this past weekend over Oklahoma State. He was planning to visit Tech later and decide around November, but his decision was cut short.
- Corey Avery should be deciding between Baylor and Texas Tech within the next week. He listed Tech as is favorite around a month ago and has a very impressive offer list that including Ohio State, LSU and Nebraska.
- Joseph Clark tore his ACL last week. Good luck to him on his recovery and hope he can get back to football as soon as he's ready.
- Keland McElrath was a rated a 78 by 247 after he committed to Tech, which according to 247 would be the lowest rank recruit. Still can't find film on this kid, so I can't have much of an opinion here.
- Kliff Kingsbury visited Whitehouse HS this past weekend, home of commit Patrick Mahomes, 2014 recruits Reggie Long and Vincent Dunning, along with 2015 stud recruit Justin Dunning. Not sure what his intentions are, maybe they are similar to what happened 2 weeks ago at Argyle HS.
Basketball Recruiting 2014:
- Justin Gray is now down to a couple schools, Harvard and Texas Tech. He visited Texas Tech a few weeks ago and hasn't visited Harvard yet. I like how Harvard is the other school offering, showing that this kid has some smarts. Hope we get him.
- Mitch Solomon has two favorites in Texas Tech and Oklahoma State. He isn't listed as visiting any of the schools yet, although a Rivals150 PF visited Tech 3 weeks ago, and Mitch fits that category. Tubby Smith did go see Mitch work out on September 20th according to some twitter pages however.
- Omega Harris recently committed to UTEP this past Sunday. Personally, he was one of my favorite recruits to watch along with Solomon, but Tech didn't seem to go after him very hard. Good Luck to him in El Paso.
Football Recruiting 2015+:
- Kyler Murray will be narrowing down his list of schools soon and is confident that Texas Tech will make the cut. There are a lot of high school programs after him, including Texas, Texas A&M, Ohio State and Clemson. Who not better to coach a small, dual threat QB than the guy who made one a Heisman winner.
- Handful of Texas Tech recruits visited Arkansas for the game against Texas A&M this past weekend. For a lot of these guys, this is their 2nd time seeing Texas A&M play, an interesting note.