RANKINGS: Class of 2014 - 2015 - 2016

For the most part, it was a pretty slow weekend in the world of high school basketball recruiting. However, with a few of shooting guard Malik Newman's visits getting confirmed and Florida State's big weekend, there is plenty to talk about in this week's Starting Five.

Monday morning, Courtney Cronin of the Jackson Clarion-Ledger reported that Malik Newman, the No. 3 player in the class of 2015, will host three in-home visits this week. Cronin also confirmed with Newman and his father Horatio Webster that Newman has set up his first official visit.

First let's talk about the visits that we now know about. Kansas, Kentucky and Connecticut will be in to conduct visits with Newman and his family. Additionally, Rivals.com has confirmed that N.C. State will be in as well. The official visit that has been set is to Texas A&M the weekend of Oct. 11.

For the past couple of months, Newman has been very quiet about his recruitment, but we can speculate a little with this information. For instance, there had been some talk that Newman may visit Kansas and Kentucky for their Late Night in the Phog and Big Blue Madness activities. The date of his visit to A&M rules out a visit to Kansas for Late Night, and as it stands now Rivals.com would be surprised if he visited Kentucky for BBM. He will surely visit Kansas and Kentucky (and likely UConn and Mississippi State as well), but the latest talk behind the scenes is that Newman would prefer to visit schools on weekends where there aren't other prospects visiting so that he can dive deeper into each program and staff recruiting him.

Of course, when discussing Newman everybody wants to know about the possible package deal with big man Diamond Stone. Both Newman and Stone have acknowledged that they would like to play together if possible. However, the feel out there is that the package is not likely to happen, and if it did, UConn is the only place it could.

For now, it is still looking like Newman's recruitment will go into the spring. He appears to be in no rush to make a decision, and no leader has emerged either publicly or behind the scenes.

We wrote about it Friday night, but we also wanted to take one quick look back at Florida State landing in-your-face wings Dwayne Bacon and Malik Beasley.

The reason that we call them in-your-face wings is because it's the best way to describe their playing style. Both Bacon and Beasley are attack mode wings that love to play physically. Bacon is the bigger and stronger of the two and more of a transition and baseline operator. Beasley is the more explosive -- particualry when he can drive and launch off of one foot -- and slightly better jump shooter of the two.

Both of these guys have great basketball frames that will allow them to become even more beastly when they hit a college weight room. Mixing them in with a versatile, utility wing like Terance Mann who has a body to build on as well gives the Seminoles one of the best wing groups that any school will sign. As it is, they will move into the national top 10 classes when we update the team recruiting rankings for 2015 on Wednesday.

One four-star prospect who will definitely be making a decision this week is 6-foot-8 power forward Juwan Morgan of Waynesville (Mo.) High. Ranked No. 105 in the class of 2015, Morgan was a summer standout with the MoKan Elite program and he will choose between Indiana and Vanderbilt.

Morgan confirmed to Rivals.com that he plans to announce his decision during a ceremony at his high school at 6:30 p.m. CT Wednesday night. He had also been considering Creighton, Stanford and Washington but has cancelled any plans to visit those programs so that he can choose between the Hoosiers and the Commodores.

Morgan visited Bloomington over the weekend and was in Nashville the week before. A strong student, Morgan hasn't given much indication of which way he may be leaning, and there has been just as strong a buzz going around for Tom Crean and his bunch as there has been for Kevin Stallings and his program.

Given that we have released updated rankings for the classes of 2015 and 2016 over the past few weeks there have been a lot of people asking when Rivals.com will release a ranking for the class of 2017.

Our plan is to release an initial top 25 for 2017 on Sept. 24. As we have written in the past, the top two spots are pretty much decided with seven-footer DeAndre Ayton and point guard Troy Brown slotted for No. 1 and No. 2, respectively.

In addition to ranking an initial top 25, Rivals.com will designate an additional 20-25 prospects as early four-star prospects outside of the top 25. Inside of that top 25, probably somewhere in the neighborhood of 10-12 other prospects (in addition to Ayton and Brown) will be identified as five-star prospects. Some of those in the mix for initial five-star status include big man Zach Brown, wing Michael Porter, combo forward Jarred Vanderbilt, wing Brian Bowen and guard Jalek Felton.

Here's a rundown of some of the weekend's notable commitments.

Boston College picked up a fine shooter in 6-foot-4 two guard Matt Milon. The Floridian has range to well beyond the college three-point line and he will arrive at BC with high major strength. Milon should develop into a very good role player and his spot-up shooting ability will eventually help to soften defenses.

Out at New Mexico, coach Noodles Neal got a multi-million dollar contract extension and a very solid commitment from the class of 2016. Rivals150 power forward Mitch Lightfoot from Gilbert (Ariz.) Christian decided to end his recruitment early. Ranked No. 136 in 2016, Lightfoot is a lanky 6-foot-7 four man who plays with a non-stop motor. Though he only weighs 200 pounds he is very physical, does a good job on the glass and can score on the interior. Lightfoot is also a good athlete and is developing into a dangerous mid range jump shooter.

Utah State picked up a very nice player in class of 2015 wing Brock Miller. A very good shooter with 6-foot-5 size, Miller has the tools to develop into a multi year starter at Utah State. He needs more strength, but he has a good frame to build on and his all-around game is strong. A three-star prospect, Miller gained some national notoriety running with the Utah Prospects.

Out in Tempe, Arizona State landed a commitment from a former Rivals150 prospect in Jordan Washington. A grinding and tough 6-foot-8 big man who has great hands and soft touch, Washington hails from New York and is a sophomore at Ottumwa (Iowa) Indian Hills. One of the top JUCO big men in America, Washington is a high end three-star prospect who should be able to provide low post scoring as soon as he gets to Arizona State. Washington will have two years of eligibility and will reunite with Aztecs assistant Barret Peery who was his head coach at Indian Hills during the 2013-14 season.

Lehigh picked up a major steal in 6-foot-6 wing Matt Holba. An athletic slasher from Indiana, Holba is a three-star prospect and should have been much more heavily recruited at the Horizon, MAC, MVC and even the A-10 level. He loves to attack the rim and is a threat with the jumper. Also committing from the state of Indiana was three-star combo forward Bronson Kessinger. The 6-foot-7 forward picked Indiana State. Another high quality pickup on the mid major level was Devontae Cacok. A three-star combo forward from Georgia, Cacok picked UNC Wilmington where former Rick Pitino assistant Kevin Keatts is putting in very good work on the recruiting trail.

Finally, Northern Illinois picked up a pair of wing prospects from Wisconsin. 6-foot-6 Jaylen Key and 6-foot-6 Levi Bradley both made the call on Sunday. Teammates on a tough Wisconsin United squad in the summer, they are both three-star prospects and fine athletes. Key is the more physical of the two and is an aggressive combo forward who can play tough around the rim. Bradley is more of a pure wing and has game facing the hoop. Had Bradley waited until the spring to make his decision, he very likely would have had high major programs watching.

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