Starting Five: Leaf on market
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Five-star senior forward T.J. Leaf surprised the recruiting world when he backed off of his commitment to Arizona last week. Now, Leaf has eight programs he will consider. Also, five-star shooting guard Markelle Fultz has two official visits this week. That and much more in this week's Starting Five.
Leaf will consider eight
Five-star forward T.J. Leaf ended his recruitment with a commitment to Arizona last November. After deciding to put himself back on the market last week, the 6-foot-10 power forward at El Cajon (Calif.) Foothills Christian is wasting little time with restarting the recruiting process.
Rather than pay lip service that he is still considering Arizona, Leaf has excluded him from the list of eight programs that he will look into. His initial list is California, Gonzaga, Indiana, Kansas, Kentucky, San Diego State, Texas and UCLA.
Per Etop Udo Ema, who runs the Compton Magic summer program that Leaf plays for, visits will be set in the near future and the list will probably shrink again before Leaf makes a decision.
Leaf is a skilled four man who has good athleticism and shooting range to the three-point line. Currently ranked No. 12 in the 2016 Rivals150, he would be a huge score for whoever is able to land him.
Young gets Kentucky offer
The time to start knocking out some unofficial visits and work on shrinking his rather sizeable school list is near for four-star point guard Trae Young.
Kentucky extended an offer Sunday to the 6-foot-1 floor general from Norman (Okla.) North who currently ranks No. 28 in the class of 2017.
An exact number to cut his list down to or a date to do it by hasn't been set just yet, but Young's father Rayford Young told Rivals.com that the family is looking to get more serious about finding the right fit and that visits are being set.
Though plans can always change, Young is currently planning to hit Kansas for Late Night in the Phog and Kentucky for Big Blue Madness, two of the biggest season-starting events in college basketball. Before those visits -- which will be in October -- Young is hoping to make stops at Texas, UCLA, Arizona and the Triangle area of North Carolina to see programs like Duke and North Carolina.
All of those programs have offered, along with Baylor, Connecticut, Florida, Kansas State, Oklahoma, Oklahoma State and many more.
Nembhard seeing offers
It was a very good summer for the No. 51 player in the class of 2017 R.J. Nembhard. Playing for Nike Team Texas Elite, the 6-foot-4 combo guard really found his rhythm as a scorer and finished the month of July strong.
Not surprisingly, the offers have started to pour in for the junior at Keller (Texas) Central High.
According to Nembhard's father Ruben Sr., the four-star prospect now holds offers from Baylor, Creighton, Kansas State, New Mexico, Oklahoma, Oklahoma State, SMU, TCU, Texas and Virginia Tech.
According to the elder Nembhard, the family plans to take some unofficial visits during the fall and dates and destinations will be set soon.
Second visit for Fultz
Five-star shooting guard Markelle Fultz quietly knocked out his first official visit last week when he stopped by Louisville.
Fultz's trainer Keith Williams told Rivals.com that the visit was a success.
"The Louisville visit was nice," said Williams. "He really enjoyed the team and watching them practice."
The 6-foot-4 scoring machine from Hyattsville (Md.) DeMatha who ranks No. 23 in the class of 2016 has two more visits coming up this week.
Fultz begins an official visit to Tucson on Monday, where he will check out what Sean Miller and his staff at Arizona have to offer. After finishing his trip to Arizona, Fultz will stay in Pac-12 country and head up the West Coast to visit Lorenzo Romar and the Washington Huskies.
After this week, Fultz will be left with two official visits to use if he so desires.
Lightfoot has list of five
Formerly committed to New Mexico, the class of 2016's No. 140 ranked player Mitch Lightfoot has his reopened recruitment to five programs.
The athletic 6-foot-8 power forward from Gilbert (Ariz.) Christian is down to Arizona, Kansas, St. John's, Stanford and Utah.
Lightfoot already visited Stanford officially in late May, so he has four visits left and he has set the weekend of Sept. 5 as his time to visit Utah. Visit dates to his other three finalists should all be locked in within the next week or so and for now the three-star prospect intends to complete all of his visits before making a college decision.
