Meyers Midweek Report

Several prospects in the southeast put up big numbers Tuesday night, and elite prospect Harrison Barnes had some head coaches in the stands for his opening night. National Recruiting Analyst Jerry Meyer also comments on the play of some of the top freshmen in the country in his Midweek Report.

HIGH SCHOOL WATCH

Elite 2010 prospect Harrison Barnes scored 16 points in his opening game as his Ames (Iowa) Senior team cruised to an easy win. Word out of Iowa is that over 1,000 fans were at the game. Amongst the crowd was Kansas' Bill Self and Joe Dooley, Stanford's Johnny Dawkins and Iowa State's Greg McDermott, whose son is a teammate of Barnes.

Casey Prather is putting up big numbers this season for Jackson (Tenn.) North Side High School. In the opening game of the year, he went for over 30 points with four three-pointers. Last night he poured in 41 points and grabbed 16 rebounds in a seven point loss to one of the best teams in the state of Tennessee Jackson (Tenn.) Liberty Tech High School.

Vanderbilt signee John Jenkins exploded for 55 points in a 75-73 overtime loss. Nearly half of his points came off the nine three-pointers he made.

Ole Miss signee Reginald Buckner put up a stat line in his opening game that justified his being named Most Versatile signee in the SEC by Rivals.com. The four-star combo forward went for 20 points, 13 rebounds, eight assists, six blocks and six charges in 24 minutes of play in a convincing win.

Kentucky signee Jon Hood put up 42 points in his game Tuesday night.

MICHIGAN VISITORS

This weekend is a big recruiting weekend for Michigan as it host some of its top underclassmen targets for its game against Duke. Four-star 2010 prospect Trey Zeigler, three-star 2010 prospect Tim Hardaway, Jr., and highly touted 2011 prospect Brandan Kearney will be on campus.

SCOUTING THE FRESHMEN

Coach Thad Matta is bringing Rivals.com's No.1 ranked prospect from 2008 B.J. Mullens along slowly as he shares time at the center position with Dallas Lauderdale. Mullens needs to develop a more physical and aggressive edge to his game to earn more than the 16.8 minutes per game he is averaging, but Mullens talent and potential to be a dominant big man was evident Tuesday night in Ohio State's impressive win on the road against Miami.

Mullens played the majority of his 18 minutes in the second half and was a factor around the basket. He grabbed a rebound every two minutes for a total of mine rebounds and looked good in pick and roll situations. Playing well above the rim, Mullens failed to finish a couple put backs and he also struggled at the line. As he gets stronger and gains confidence from playing daily with bigger bodies, expect Mullens' game to take off during the Big Ten schedule.

Scotty Hopson has had his moments this year for Tennessee, playing around 20 minutes per game for Tennessee. His midrange scoring has been brilliant at times, and he is hitting 50 percent of his three-point attempts. He also looks pretty good guarding the ball, giving a better effort on the college level for Bruce Pearl than he did on the high school level. His rebounding, however, has been a disappointment. In 20 minutes of play, a player as long and athletic as Hopson should be averaging well over the measly 1.3 rebounds per game he is presently averaging.

Tyreke Evans is leading Memphis in scoring with over 16 points per game, but those points aren't coming from behind the three-point line. In six game Evans has only made 4 of 20 three-point attempts.