Duke, KU among teams with big interest in Hoophall Classic

Arguably the top event of the winter, the Spalding Hoophall Classic, kicks off on Saturday afternoon and the Rivals team will be out in full force covering the three-day event. Over 70 ranked players – 20 or so of them five-stars – will descend upon Springfield, Mass., and fans of these five programs should be paying extra close attention this weekend.

RELATED: Predictions for top players at Hoophall

Sean Miller and his staff, suffering through a few injuries and other off-the-court issues this winter, have patched together another good looking campaign in Tucson and they are excited about who they will add from 2017.

No. 2 overall DeAndre Ayton and four-star shooting guard Brandon Randolph — both Arizona commits — will face each other Saturday evening. The Pac-12 staff will also be keeping a close eye on Randolph’s teammate at Westtown, five-star wing Cameron Reddish. They’ll also be eyeing Ayton’s sophomore teammate at Phoenix (Ariz.) Hillcrest Josh Green. Both have offers.

After missing out on Hamidou Diallo last week, the Wildcats have turned most of their 2017 attention to five-star wing Brian Bowen. The Wildcats look to be sitting in a good spot for the Michigan native as they will be keeping a close eye on the 6-foot-7 small forward when he battles their top target in the 2018 class, No. 1 overall Marvin Bagley III. Other juniors that Arizona will track throughout the weekend will be Emmanuel Akot (has Arizona in his final four), Shaq’s son Shareef O’Neal and Jahvon Quinerly, an improving junior guard out of Jersey.

The Blue Devils will likely be in attendance to check in on their top five signee, big man Wendell Carter. Four-star point guard Matt Coleman is down to Texas and the Blue Devils. He plans to commit Monday following his lone outing in Springfield and signs are pointing to him being a Longhorn. If so, it would ramp up the recruitment of 2017’s No. 3 player Trevon Duval -- who will also be in attendance -- as the Blue Devils are in need of a high-level point guard.

Mohamed Bamba, another five-star big man, will also be in attendance and the Blue Devils are in the thick of it with the shot blocking machine. Bamba’s high school teammate at Westtown School, Cameron Reddish, has already become a class of 2018 priority of Duke’s and the Blue Devils might just be the leader for the wing’s services. Duke is also heavily involved with 2018’s top player, Marvin Bagley III.

The Jayhawks’ top signee, five-star power forward Billy Preston of Mouth of Wilson (Va.) Oak Hill, remained at No. 8 in our latest 2017 rankings, but he’s been slumping some and is in need of a breakout performance. The Jayhawks – along with Arizona, Baylor, Duke and Seton Hall – are also in the top five for Trevon Duval. The 6-foot-3 guard is down to a final five, but it does seem as if the Jayhawks have begun to ramp up their attention with the explosive guard out of IMG Academy. Kansas already has top 40 guard Marcus Garrett committed and high-profile transfers Malik Newman and Sam Cunliffe are sitting out on the wing, but they really need Duval or Oklahoma five-star Trae Young to run the show.

Landing a big is already a 2018 priority for Kansas and top 35 power forward Emmitt Williams recently received an offer from Kansas. The Jayhawks are also tracking five-star junior center Moses Brown and Nazreon Reid along with four-star center David McCormack and class of 2019 five-star big man Charles Bassey, all of whom will be in attendance.

John Calipari and the Wildcats have 2017’s No. 1 class, but they are greedy for more. Five-star signees Nick Richards and Quade Green will hit the floor, but it’s Mohamed Bamba that is the next big piece on their 2017 radar. Calipari loves to have a rim protector and for that reason, he covets the seven-footer who is considering UK along with Duke, Harvard and others. Kentucky is also among a final six that also includes Arizona, Arizona State, Duke, Oregon and UCLA for 2018’s best player, Marvin Bagley III.

The recent miss of Hamidou Diallo still stings, but the Huskies will be able to see four-star point guard signee Makai Ashton-Langford and Rivals150 big man pledge Josh Carlton. More importantly, it’s another chance for them to catch the eye of current 2018 four-star combo guard Eric Ayala, who is looking hard at switching to 2017 and has the Huskies high on his list.

With several New England and mid-Atlantic area teams in attendance, the entire Hoophall event is right in the Huskies wheelhouse. Some 2018’s for their fans to keep an eye on include four-star wings Louis King and Sidney Wilson as well as five-star forward Simisola Shittu. One other guy that the Huskies have tried to make a move with is David Singleton — a four-star junior guard from Kevin Ollie’s old stomping grounds of Los Angeles.