Gary Bedore was nice enough to supplement the major boards’ recruiting updates, so I thought I would add his descriptions in with the rankings I’ve compiled thus far.

Scout’s updated top 100 for 2006 is out, and Self and Co. are looking to select 3-4 players out of a crop of 22. Here they are in order of Scout’s heirarchy, with Gary Bedore’s descriptions. By Self’s admission, we’re looking for a Big, a perimeter guy, and the best guy available.

2. Brandan Wright 6-9.5/200/24.0
The country’s No. 2 player has already visited North Carolina and Duke and has strong interest in Kentucky. He has a second tier of KU, Wake Forest, Vanderbilt and Georgia Tech. He’s also a possible early entry to the NBA.

4. Darrel Arthur 6-9.5/190
Arthur, who plays for Team Texas AAU, is rivals.com’s No. 4-rated player in the Class of 2006.
A power forward who is known by the nickname “Slim Shady,” Arthur has a list of KU, North Carolina, Texas, Oklahoma and Arizona. Arthur scored 22 points and had 17 rebounds in helping South Oak Cliff to a 64-63 victory over Sam Houston in the Texas Class 4A state title game.

6. Wayne Ellington 6-4/190
Ellington, who plays for Tim Thomas Playaz, is the country’s No. 23 player. He likes KU, Arizona, UConn, Georgia Tech, North Carolina, N.C. State, Villanova and Wake Forest.

7. Thaddeus Young 6-8.5/200
Young, the country’s No. 7 player, has a length list of 20 schools including KU, Duke, Memphis, Georgia Tech, North Carolina, UConn, Oklahoma, Tennessee and Texas.

12. Lance Thomas 6-8.5/200/17.0
Thomas, the country’s No. 21-ranked player, has a list of KU, Arizona, Indiana, Stanford, Georgia Tech, Duke, St. John’s, Villanova, Connecticut and Louisville.

14. Spencer Hawes 6-11/215
Hawes, who plays for Seattle Friends of Hoop AAU, is No. 8 rated nationally. He’s the latest sensation from the country’s hottest hoops hotbed, Seattle.
Hawes has a lengthy list of KU, Arizona, Washington, UConn, Gonzaga, North Carolina, North Carolina State, Notre Dame, UCLA, Texas, and Stanford. His uncle, Steve, played for four teams in the NBA, while his dad played overseas.

24. Jon Scheyer 6-4/-/26.3 (A friend of Julian Wright’s and a very good player, but he’s not coming to KU)

28. Bryce Webster 6-10/250/21.8
Webster, who plays for Howard Pulley AAU, is No. 72-rated nationally. He’s mentioned KU, Minnesota, Notre Dame, Boston College and Michigan State as prime candidates, plus Marquette, Arizona, Florida and Iowa. Ed: There’s a big difference between Bedore’s ratings here and Scout’s. I trust that it’s an update issue as I don’t believe the ratings he’s using have been updated since August.

29. Bryan Davis 6-8/215
The No. 29-rated player nationally, who is known as an excellent rebounder and shot blocker with touch up to 15 feet, lists KU, Texas A&M, North Carolina, UConn, Arizona and Baylor. KU and Texas had coaches show up at his high school the first day college coaches could hit the road in recruiting this spring. “That meant a lot,” Davis, a standout on Team Texas AAU, told rivals.com.

30. Tory Jackson 6-0/165
The country’s No. 48 player is considering Michigan, Michigan State, Cal and others.

33. Dwane Collins 6-8.5/225/18.0
34. Perry Stevenson 6-9/190

45. Chase Budinger 6-5/185
Also a top-rated volleyball player, the country’s No. 33 rated hoopster likes KU, UCLA, Arizona, Stanford, Duke, USC, Kentucky and others. He’s playing for the Southern California All-Stars AAU team.

48. Jerry Smith 6-3/180/19.2
Smith, who attended a KU game last season, plays AAU ball for the Wisconsin Warriors. He is the nation’s No. 27 player and has said Wisconsin and Wake Forest lead Iowa, Kentucky, KU, Illinois and Texas A&M.

53. Derrick Jasper 6-5/180
The country’s No. 25 rated player likes most of the Pac 10 schools, plus, KU, Kentucky, USC and Miami.

56. Dwight Lewis 6-5/190/21.0
Lewis, who averaged 27.5 points a game last season, committed to KU last week, but withdrew the commitment a day later. He’s still a heavy KU lean and will visit KU’s campus Thursday through Saturday. He also plans on visiting LSU and still has USC, Oklahoma and Florida on his list.

62. Andre Stephens 6-8/220

65. Alex Stephenson 6-9/210
Stephenson, the country’s No. 22-ranked player, has a list of Arizona, KU, UCLA, Cal, Kentucky and others.

74. Ray Hall 6-9/250
Unranked, he has Arizona, KU, North Carolina, UCLA, Oregon and Texas Tech on his list.

76. Blake Wallace 6-7/185
90. Jonathan Mitchell 6-6/230
96. Tre’Von Willis 6-3/185

Here’s a couple more that Bedore added:

Jeremiah Rivers, 6-4, 180, Winter Park High, Winter Park, Fla. — Rivers, who plays for Nike Team Florida, is rated No. 32 nationally. His top five: KU, Wake Forest, Georgia Tech, Notre Dame and Georgetown. RIvers’ dad is Boston Celtics’ coach Doc Rivers. The point guard averaged 14.8 points, 5.7 assists and 4.3 rebounds a game as a junior.

Donald Sloan, 6-2, 170, Seagoville High, Seagoville, Texas — The country’s No. 68 player competes for Team Texas AAU. Impressive of late, he’s considering KU, Oklahoma, SMU, Texas A&M, Florida and Alabama.

Xavier Keeling, 6-6, 210, Johnson High, Huntsville, Ala. — Unranked nationally, Keeling plays AAU ball for the Alabama Lazers. He likes North Carolina State, Tennessee, Alabama, Vanderbilt, Auburn and Kentucky.

Mike Jones, 6-6, 210, Lower Richlands High, Hopkins, S.C. — The country’s No. 54-rated player, who competes for South Carolina Ravens, likes Arkansas, South Carolina, Maryland, Georgetown, KU and others.

Derrick Roland, 6-4, 185, Seagoville High, Dallas — Roland, who plays for Dallas Mustangs AAU, is rated 66th nationally. He likes KU, UConn, Florida, Oklahoma, Texas A&M, UNLV, Georgia Tech, Miami, Baylor and Colorado. His team won 33 of 36 games this past season thanks in part to his 19 ppg.

Jawan Carter, 6-0, 165, Tatnall High, Wilmington, Del. — Carter, ranked No. 52 overall, averaged 28 points and eight assists as a junior. He’s looking at KU, Villanova, Georgetown, St. Joe’s, Wake Forest, Kentucky, DePaul and Florida.

Matt Bouldin, 6-5, 200, Thunder Ridge High, Denver — The country’s No. 53-ranked player, who is a combo guard, has received a lot of interest from schools out West including Colorado, Colorado State, Washington State, Utah, New Mexico, Gonzaga and Cal. He plays for Colorado Select AAU.

Christian Polk, 6-3, 170, Deer Valley High, Glendale, Ariz. — The country’s No. 37-rated player likes Arizona, Arizona State, Indiana, KU, Texas, UConn and UCLA.

Phog Blog reader Clock writes in expressing disappointment that we haven’t mentioned Bahe’s transfer. On the news last night, Fox’s sports reporter called him “Nick Bay - Hee” over and over.

I wish only the best for Nick - I think he’ll get more minutes at Creighton and he still gets to have the word “Jay” in his mascot name.

You can read more on the story here.

Had DeAndre Thomas not opted to go to the Dark Side, that scholarship could have been made available to him. My guess is that now we’ll hold onto it for next year, where the class is a little better. Or maybe CJ Henry will join the team. He will surprise people if so.

DeAndre, DeAndre, why did you have to make it personal?

“Illinois stopped calling me and it was like Kansas put me on hold to see if one of their players was transferring. Now, it’s all about payback, because I get to play against both of them.”

I was really looking forward to DeAndre Thomas. I was looking for a way we could get him to be a Jayhawk. And then kid’s gotta go and say something stupid like that. Yes, folks, DeAndre Thomas, who just weeks ago looked set to be a Jayhawk, is now committing to the University of Missouri. A bad move, we all know, made worse by the gratuitous loud-mouthing about payback.

For the record, KU didn’t have a scholarship for you DeAndre, so the only option we had was to see if someone transferred. I apologize if that comes off as a diss, but for crying out loud, there was very little that could be done outside of forcing someone out. Moody has paid his own way for years and I think he deserves a little payback for that himself.

You could have made your career at Mizzou a little easier by not calling out two rivals who have beaten you senseless time after time for the last five years. Now you’ll be wearing a big target on your back whenever you enter Lawrence, KS or Champaign, IL. Like I said, I was pulling for you, but man, you didn’t help yourself at all.

See you next year and best of luck at Mizzou.

Another big signing for Diamond Lew. We’re improving our take by about 2.7 million a year, or more dramatically, by about 400% over what Nike was giving us.

“We are excited and proud of our new partnership with adidas,” Perkins said. “The quality of the product and their dedication to service — to all our teams — makes adidas a terrific fit for Kansas. Their substantial commitment clearly demonstrates their understanding of the tremendous value of the entire KU athletics program.”

The old deal with Nike paid KU $650,000 a year. This deal is good for about $3.3 million a year. Also, this deal is bigger than adidas’ deal with Nebraska announced as $22.7 over eight years.

NBADraft.net is reporting that Kleiza will indeed snip the tender threads holding him to Mizzou and head off to the rarified air of the N.B.A.

Tigerboard meltdown in 5…4…3…

Mass Mizzou comment deletions in 3….2…1….

A perfect time, I might add, to pick up one of our Mediocri-Tees from the Phog Blog T-Shirt Store. Make your neighbors quietly resent KU’s superiority with the wordiest KU Shirt since who knows when.

But this time, we’re making a little more money. We’ve made just about 1.7 million a year for the TV for the last contract. This one, Diamond Lew negotiated that we be making thrice that.

That’s right….thrice that.

According to the Star:

The Kansas athletic department has signed a seven-year contract extension with ESPN Regional Television that will bring substantially more revenue to the athletic department.

Contract figures revealed by the school Thursday showed a more than 300-percent increase in the yearly income KU will receive from ESPN. The deal will net Kansas $40.2 million, or about $5.74 million per year.

Diamond Lew is happy:

You can safely say this is one of the largest agreements in the country,” KU athletic director Lew Perkins said Thursday night. “I’m telling you, this is huge. We’re not talking about peanuts here. We’re playing in the big time now.”

This also answers the question that has been on many a person’s mind: Where will the money come from for the new Scoreboard?

Says Lou: Perkins said he’ll use more than $4 million of the ESPN money to pay for a new scoreboard at Allen Fieldhouse.

Update: The Slant is now reporting that Lewis is backing off his committment, or that maybe he never committed, or that, well, who knows anymore…:

“Dwight is still very high on Kansas,” Dwight Lewis, Sr., told JayhawkSlant.com. “He is still very much interested in attending the University of Kansas. However, I think that he wants to take some official visits before he actually makes a final decision…

Why does it have to get weird? Either news travels very slowly in Louisiana, or something strange is afoot. Randy Rosetta of the Baton Rouge Advocate today writes that “it turns out the demise of LSU’s recruiting pursuit of Lewis was exaggerated.” Rosetta goes on to explain a few more surprising things about Lewis’s committment, or lack thereof:

“Dwight has not committed to Kansas,” Rummel coach Steve Alfonso said emphatically Wednesday morning, repeating a spiel that he repeated several times during the day. “It’s down to LSU and Kansas, but nothing has been decided between those two.”

Evidently, the confusion, which none of the local papers have picked up on yet, is due to Dwight Lewis Sr’s comments earlier this week. You may remember that he said there’s no use prolonging it. Earlier this week, it was supposedly between Oklahoma and KU. Then Lewis ‘picked’ KU. Now LSU is back in the picture? I’m generally more inclined to listen to the father in this situation, rather than the coach, but it’s all getting rather strange. First the coach talks to the Kansas media folks, laying down all sorts of money quotes about Dwight’s shooting ability, about his scholarship, about his lack of truancy, and the next day he’s emphasizing very clearly that young Dwight has not chosen Kansas.

Now, even his dad is backpedaling. A few days after saying of his son, “He’s definitely going to Kansas,” Lewis Sr. now says the following, according to Coach Alfonso:

“The Internet people called him and asked him about Dwight Jr. visiting Kansas and how interested he was in Kansas, and somehow that got turned into a solid commitment,” Alfonso said. “The bottom line is this: It’s going to either be LSU and Kansas and LSU is still very much alive. What Dwight has definitely decided is that it’s down to just those two.”

I do not like the way that this is going, but I think it will resolve itself nicely. Still, it’s not just the “internet people” that got fooled…it’s every major newspaper around here. Did they not bother to confirm the story? Did Shay Wildeboor somehow wildly exagerrate Lewis Sr’s comments?

I bet we find out soon. And Lewis is coming here one way or the other, so hopefully it will straighten itself out.

Well, they know eachother after all…

“I was very fortunate to have coached someone like him at Kansas,'’ Doherty said. “He’s a hard-worker, a team player … He’ll be a tremendous role model for our players.'’

Welcome Dwight Lewis. Some KU fans may bicker about your #84 ranking in the class. I tell them now not to worry, because you are a rocker.

From the LJW homepage:

Dwight Lewis, a 6-foot-5, 190-pound shooting guard/small forward from Archbishop Rummel in Metairie, La., has given a verbal committment to play men’s basketball at Kansas University. Lewis is the No. 21-ranked shooting guard and No. 84-ranked player overall in the class of 2006 by rivals.com. See Wednesday’s Journal-World and KUsports.com for a full story.

How about that, before the visit and everything. Chalk one up to Self and Co. and expect to see Mr. Lewis in the McD’s game next year, no matter what these rankings say now(they’re pretty old listings). Remember, Dwight Lewis was one of only 6 juniors on the Parade AA team this year.

I’m very excited about this. Now bring on a big!

UPDATE: LJW has updated their coverage. I love Dwight Lewis’s dad.

“There are no negatives about Kansas. So why wait, why prolong it?” Lewis Sr. said. “He’s known about Kansas’ reputation and program, one of the elite as far as basketball is concerned. How can you not know about Kansas?”

Wright was on the second team, Downs on the third team. But no Mario Chalmers. Strange. Most consider Chalmers the number 1 PG prospect in the class, but I guess the Duke shine and good performances in a couple of games have earned the hearts of the USA Today editors for Greg Paulus.

Here’s the complete list:

First Team:

Greg Oden, 7′0″ Junior Center, Indianapolis, IN
OJ Mayo, 6′6″ Sophomore Guard, Cincinnati, OH
Monta Ellis, 6′3″ Senior Guard, Jackson, Miss (Miss State)
Louis Williams, 6′3″ Senior Guard, Snellville, GA (Georgia)
Josh McRoberts, 6′10″ Senior Forward, Carmel, IN (Duke)

Second Team:

Julian Wright, 6′8″ Senior Forward, Flossmoor, IL (Kansas)
Gerald Green, 6′8″ Senior Forward, Houston, TX (Oklahoma State)
Tyler Hansbrough, 6′9″ Senior Forward, Poplar Bluff, MO (CCOC)
Greg Paulus, 6′2″ Senior Guard, Syracuse, NY, (Duke)
Andray Blatche, 6′11″ Senior Center, South Kent, CT (Unsigned, NBA draft)

Third Team:

Micah Downs, 6′8″ Senior Guard/Forward, Kirkland, WA (Kansas)
Martell Webster, 6′6″ Senior Guard, Seattle, WA (Washington)
Jon Brockman, 6′7″ Senior Forward, Snohomish, WA (Washington)
Richard Hendrix, 6′8″ Senior Forward, Athens, AL (Alabama)
Wayne Ellington, 6′4″ Junior Guard, Merion Station, PA

An update from my previous posts, since we have a *little more information now. It looks like Jon Scheyer can be considered extremely unlikely, so I’ll cross his name out.

Scout’s updated top 100 for 2006 is out, and Self and Co. are looking to select 3-4 players out of a crop of 22. Here they are in order of Scout’s heirarchy. Update

2. Brandan Wright 6-9.5/200/24.0
4. Darrel Arthur 6-9.5/190
6. Wayne Ellington 6-4/190
7. Thaddeus Young 6-8.5/200
12. Lance Thomas 6-8.5/200/17.0
14. Spencer Hawes 6-11/215
24. Jon Scheyer 6-4/-/26.3 (A friend of Julian Wright’s and a very good player)
28. Bryce Webster 6-10/250/21.8
29. Brian Davis 6-8/215
30. Tory Jackson 6-0/165
33. Dwane Collins 6-8.5/225/18.0
34. Perry Stevenson 6-9/190
45. Chase Budinger 6-5/185
48. Jerry Smith 6-3/180/19.2
53. Derrick Jasper 6-5/180
56. Dwight Lewis 6-5/190/21.0
62. Andre Stephens 6-8/220
65. Alex Stephenson 6-9/210
74. Ray Hall 6-9/250
76. Blake Wallace 6-7/185
90. Jonathan Mitchell 6-6/230
96. Tre’Von Willis 6-3/185

PB friend Buddy writes in with this summary:

Julian Wright was on “Cold Pizza” this morning with Louis Williams, who has signed or committed to Georgia, but is talking NBA. Linda Cohn asked them both about meeting Jordan, and playing in the game. Julian sounded excited to meet Jordan, and to play in the game. He also sounded VERY committed to coming to Lawrence.

Cohn then asked them each, “NBA Finals or Final Four”? Williams immediately said, “NBA Finals”, Julian smiled, and said “Final Four”.

Is it October yet?

You can have your NBA Finals and MTV Cribs. Give me the Final Four - there’s nothing like it.