Starting Five: Five-star Gary Trent sets visits

Five-star shooting guard Gary Trent Jr. has locked in four official visit dates and four-star forward Ira Lee is down to three schools. Details on those moves and more are below in this week's edition of the Starting Five.

Five-star shooting guard Gary Trent Jr. has taken a big step forward with his recruitment. After speculation swirled for the last week or so that he had set official visits with Arizona, Duke, Michigan State and UCLA, Trent confirmed the dates over the weekend.

Ranked No. 13 overall in the class of 2017, Trent will get his visits started this weekend when he heads to UCLA. After that, he will see Arizona on the weekend of Oct. 14, Duke on the weekend of Oct. 21 and Michigan State is scheduled for Oct. 25.

A physical 6-foot-4 shooting guard from Minnesota whose father, Gary Sr., played nearly 10 years in the NBA, Trent has moved to Napa (Calif.) Prolific Prep for his senior year.

Duke has been considered to be the behind-the-scenes leader by many, however Arizona shouldn't be discounted here and they look to have been making a move with the high scoring guard. UCLA and Michigan State certainly can't be dismissed, but the Blue Devils and Wildcats do appear to be running slightly ahead as Trent begins his visits.

Four-star power forward Ira Lee's tweet says it all -- he can only choose one. Now, the No. 59 ranked prospect in the class of 2017 is down to an all Pac-12 final three of Arizona, California and Oregon.

Currently rehabbing from post summer shoulder surgery, the 6-foot-7 power forward at Santa Monica (Calif.) Crossroads is a bouncy, high-volume rebounder who plays above the rim in transition and has a great motor.

Lee has scheduled official visits to all three of his finalists and he'll take his first trip this weekend when he checks out California. After that he'll see Oregon the weekend of Oct. 7 and Arizona on Oct. 14.

Headed into the visits, we would handicap this one as a battle that will most likely end up coming down to Zona and Cal with Sean Miller's Wildcats perhaps enjoying a slight lead entering the visit process.

It normally happens during the winter and early spring. An off-the-radar prospect emerges from relative obscurity to attract big time attention. In case of 6-foot-10 power forward Clifton Moore, it is happening much earlier.

A thin and mobile four man who can stretch the floor with his shooting, the senior at Horsham (Pa.) Hatboro Horsham played his summer ball for the Hoop Dreamz program. Playing mostly in events around the Northeast and Mid-Atlantic area, Moore managed to stay relatively under the radar.

Last week, Indiana's Tom Crean was in to see him and immediately offered a scholarship. All of a sudden, the secret is out.

"There were a lot of guys hoping that the big programs wouldn't see him," an East Coast assistant told Rivals.com. "He can really shoot, he moves very well and he's got huge upside. He just needs strength and didn't blow up because none of the national writers saw him."

Just how good Moore is, or isn't, is something that we'll watch closely this winter, but he's certainly created a buzz. Sunday, he cut his school list down to a final six that includes Indiana, Lafayette, Northwestern, Ole Miss, St. Joseph's and Temple.

One of the priorities for Marquette during the recruiting cycle was to land some versatility and toughness on the wing. Steve Wojciechowski and his staff accomplished that over the weekend when they landed Jamal Cain during his official visit.

A 6-foot-7 wing from Detroit who exudes toughness, Cain isn't the most muscular wing in the country, but don't mistake his lean frame for a lack of ability to bang. He is formerly more of a power forward with mobility who has turned into a legitimate wing threat.

He runs the floor, he defends and he has become an adept mid-range jump shooter who is stretching his range to the three-point line. A four-star prospect, Cain joins three-star big men Theo John and Ikechukwu Eke to make up Marquette's 2017 recruiting class.

Four-star shooting guard Ethan Thompson is expected to end his recruitment Monday night according to a source with direct knowledge of the situation.

A 6-foot-4 senior at Gardena (Calif.) Bishop Montgomery who ranks No. 49 overall in the class of 2017, Thompson has some serious family ties to one of his finalists. Thompson's father Stephen is an assistant coach at Oregon State and his older brother Stephen Thompson Jr. is a sophomore on the team.

Thompson is expected to announce his commitment via his Twitter account and the Beavers are considered the favorites. Others who have been in the mix for a commitment from the smooth shooting scorer at one time or another include Syracuse (where his dad played) and Stanford.

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