By Saturday, campers at the LeBron James Skills Academy were justifiably worn down -- at least those who had competed all the way through - but one of the biggest guys in camp, five-star big man
Caleb Swanigan was still going strong.
A wide body with touch and skill, Swanigan kept plugging away through the end of camp and gave coaches exactly what they wanted to see.
"It's not a lot of nerves, you have to play hard," Swanigan told Rivals.com when asked if he was at all nervous playing in front of college coaches. "They don't expect you to dominate every game with scoring or getting every basket. But if you go after every loose ball and be a good teammate, that's what they want to see."
Ever since the 6-foot-9 product of Ft. Wayne (Ind.) Homestead made the decision to reclassify from the class of 2016 to 2015, the general assumption has been that
Michigan State is the team to beat. Swanigan acknowledged that he has heard the talk but said that he has no leader and that others like
California,
Purdue,
Indiana,
Michigan,
Arizona,
Duke,
UCLA and
Texas are in the mix as well.
However, Swanigan will be cutting things down soon enough.
"I'll probably narrow my list down around August," said Swanigan. "Then I'll start weeding my list out and setting up visits so there won't be a lot of wasted time."
One of the biggest movers in the most recent update to the 2015 Rivals150 was
Dillon Brooks. A 6-foot-6 wing from Canada who plays his high school ball at Henderson (Nev.) Findlay Prep, Brooks went from unranked to No. 50 and his climb may not be done.
At LBJ, one would have been hard pressed to find a craftier player. While Brooks has good size and strength, he's not a crazy athlete or flashy ball handler but man oh man does he recognize matchups and the best way to exploit them. He can make jumpers from deep, he is very clever around the bucket and he plays hard on both ends of the floor.
Coaches who aren't even recruiting him were nodding in approval of his style and things should start to pick up for him. According to Brooks, he would like to cut his list down to five sometime after next week's Peach Jam in Georgia and some of the schools under consideration are
Iowa State, Michigan, Michigan State, Rhode Island,
Houston,
UNLV,
Syracuse,
Kansas State and Providence.