Published Apr 24, 2018
Five teams with momentum after first live eval period
Eric Bossi  •  Basketball Recruiting
National Analyst
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@ebosshoops
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DALLAS - The first April live period has come and gone and the second one is just days away. Heading into this weekend, whose fans should be feeling good about the momentum that their program has in 2019 - where 128 of the Rivals150 remain undecided - and beyond?

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KENTUCKY

Already holding commitments from five-star point guard Ashton Hagans and four-star combo forward D.J. Jeffries, John Calipari and the Wildcats have gotten a good start on the 2019 class. Calipari looks as hungry as ever to put together a big class.

Maybe the silly whispers that he's losing his touch on the recruiting trail have gotten to Calipari because he does seem to be hitting the road with a vengeance these days. After conducting a healthy round of in-home visits the past few weeks, Calipari and staffers were quite visible watching other targets like No. 1 Vernon Carey, No. 2 James Wiseman, five-stars Matthew Hurt, Bryan Antoine, Tyrese Maxey and more.

Hagans is likely to join in with the Wildcats already strong 2018 group, Maxey looks to be leaning in their direction and is also toying with the idea of moving to 2018. The 7-foot Wiseman is basically down to UK and Memphis and here we are again discussing Calipari's status as one of the greatest recruiters in college hoops history.

LOUISVILLE

The last nine months or so haven't been good for Louisville. Scandal cost Rick Pitino his job and helped result in a season that didn't live up to expectations. The Cardinals still have an empty recruiting class for 2018.

But, Chris Mack is now getting settled into the job and has been on an offer spree the past few weeks. The Cardinals are also now back in the mix with top 40 2018 point guard Courtney Ramey, who was committed to them before Pitino got fired.

The Ramey news is interesting, but the focus should be on 2019, where the Cardinals are getting mentioned and noticed by many top level prospects. Mack and his staff were also highly visible on the trail as they look to get involved with the likes of five-stars Josiah James, Jeremiah Robinson-Earl, Jalen Lecque, Matthew Hurt, Precious Achiuwa, Greg Gantt, Aidan Igiehon and many others. With some positive buzz getting going, only a few of these guys would be needed to get the program heading back in the right direction.

MICHIGAN

The Wolverines are coming off of a trip to the National Championship game and John Beilein and his staff are looking to cash in.

Michigan's staff seemed to be all over the place in Dallas last weekend and often times they were rolling with multiple coaches to see prospects.

Top 40 forward Jalen Wilson has already planned a visit and would be a tremendous fit. Others like Rocket Watts, Romeo Weems, D.J. Carton and Keion Brooks are feeling the love and appear to be taking notice.

PITTSBURGH

Things have been pretty grim for the past few years in the Steel City and new coach Jeff Capel has certainly inherited a big mess to clean up. It won't be easy, but Capel has proven to be a formidable recruiter as a head coach at Oklahoma and VCU and during his time at Duke had emerged as perhaps the country's top recruiting assistant coach.

Now, he's got the task of rebuilding things at Pitt and prospects in the class of 2019 appear to be taking notice.

Capel and his staff were all over Dallas over the weekend and more and more players are mentioning the Panthers. Class of 2019's top point guard Cole Anthony is a prime target, the Panthers are working to bring four-star Trey McGowens (who they landed on Tuesday) in as a class of 2018 player and others who are getting strong interest include big names Josh Green, Precious Achiuwa, Isaiah Stewart, Tre Mitchell and many others.

Capel has to prove again that he can land top players at a new spot, but he and his staff are putting in the early work and it would be tough to bet against them landing at least two or three Rivals150 prospects from the class of 2019.

USC

The Pac-12 is in a state of flux and Andy Enfield and USC are in position to capitalize. Arizona is dealing with all sorts of negative press and trying to get out from under that to rebuild, UCLA has had some assistant coaching change.

Enfield recently hired the father of 2019 top 30 power forward Isaiah Mobley and 2020 five-star big man Evan Mobley, so even though those two haven't committed yet, we can safely assume that they will be Trojans.

The assistants that Enfield already had in place - Jason Hart and Chris Capko - are well regarded and have been laying big groundwork. Five-star big Onyeka Okongwu is taking a strong look and others that the Trojans have gotten some traction with include the likes of Boogie Ellis, Tre Mann, Cassius Stanley, Jaime Jacquez, Max Agbonkpolo, Carl Lewis and Aidan Igiehon.