Cassidy's Takeaways: Hoop Exchange Fall Festival

TAVARES, Fla. – The annual Hoop Exchange Fall Festival got under way on Saturday afternoon just outside Orlando and, as always, the event didn’t lack star power. The event featured a number of in-demand recruits that updated Rivals on where things stand in their recruitment. The most important news and notes from the day that was in the Sunshine State are below.

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Rivals Roundtable: Rankings refresh, recruitment near-locks

2024 Rankings: Rivals150 | Team | Position

2025 Rankings: Top 130

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With one official visit in the books and two left to go, No. 1 overall prospect Cooper Flagg says his recent trip to UConn and upcoming visits to Kansas and Duke will serve as final fact-finding missions of sorts. On Saturday, he spoke to Rivals about where things stand with each of his finalists.

UCONN: “The most impactful part of the visit was just getting to watch the practice and see the style of coaching. It was good for me to get to see how coach [Dan Hurley] coaches them … I got to hang out with the players a bunch and see all the facilities – where they eat and where they stay.``

KANSAS: “I’m close with coach [Bill] Self and [Norm] Roberts mostly. I talk to them a lot and built a relationship with them. They just showed me some film of past players and showed me how I fit in there. … they showed me a little bit of [Andrew] Wiggins.”

DUKE: “I’ve already been there, so I just want to get back on campus and kind of get a little more of an in-depth look at it. That’s really all with them.

Flagg says he has set no timetable for a visit but will choose the school he feels he fits in and which campus provides him with the best “daily life.”

Class of 2025 guard Dante Allen is one of the quickest and most explosive perimeter players in his class. And while it’s early in his process, the four-star prospect says he already has three schools in mind for possible visits.

“The schools I’m trying to get to first are UCF, Michigan and Villanova,” Allen said on Saturday. With UCF they just put a guy in the NBA Draft, so they know how to get a kid in the NBA. With Villanova, they’re a guard-heavy team that plays the right way. With Michigan, coach Juwan Howard used to live in Miami so he relates to me that way.”

Allen is likely to see his offer list expand over the next year, so there’s no telling what his process may look like at this time next year. That said, it seems the Knights, Wolverines and Wildcats have gotten off strong starts in the race to land his pledge.

Decision day is rapidly approaching for Liam McNeeley, who has taken all of his visits and has narrowed his focus to include just Kansas and Indiana.

The five-star forward has wrapped up all his visits and now sits in decision mode. McNeeleye has set no specific date for an announcement but did throw out a general timetable following his game on Saturday afternoon.

“Sometime in the next two weeks,” McNeeley said. “I don’t know when but sometime.”

McNeeley is thought to be a strong Indiana lean, but Kansas made an in-home visit last week and is yet to officially wave the white flag.

Thought to be a Georgia lean, five-star forward Asa Newell will take his final official visit, a trip to UGA, on Oct. 6, which happens to be his birthday weekend. The weekend may be Newell’s birthday, but it's shaping up to be equally important for the Bulldogs, as head coach Mike White and company have prepared a presentation they hope will close the door on Newell’s process and lure him to Athens.

“They put together a player development plan for me that is going to show me how they are going to develop and use me,” Newell said. “They know it’s really important for me to be in the right system, so I’m really excited to see the plan they pulled together.”

The upcoming visit will be Newell’s fourth visit to Georgia’s campus. Gonzaga, Texas and Alabama represent Newell’s other options.