Catching up on basketball recruiting with Eric Hoffses

In addition to his work on the BC beat, Eric Hoffses also covers college basketball recruiting in New England for Rivals.com. With Donahue and his staff in the middle of the important and competitive summer recruiting circuit, I thought I would check in with Eric and get a feel for BC's recruiting plans.

Q: The summer recruiting season is in full swing. Who are the most realistic names on Steve Donahue's short list? 

Eric Hoffses: Samuel Dingba from the Salisbury School is a guy I could see being a fit in the class 2013. He’s a 6’6” power forward that’s a good defender and rebounder and plays bigger than his size. BC offered him in May. There is a real need for a power forward and he seems like the most likely guy to fill the void. If you are a believer that the current core of freshmen are the real deal then you will think Dingba is a great fit. He would fill a void that is missing on the current roster.

Q: Who is the biggest reach/elite recruit that you could see BC landing? 

Eric Hoffses:  Noah Vonleh is tops on the list, and I’ll talk about him more in a bit. If you are looking for a player that’s going to be a top 100 guy and has a good chance to come to BC I’d pay attention to 2014 player Kaleb Joseph. He is a PG from Nashua, NH that plays for Cushing Academy. He can do it all from scoring, to passing, to being a leader. Joseph is a real good kid too and it’s not lost on him that BC was the first big name school to offer him. This is a big weekend coming up for BC. A lot of the top New England prospects in the class of 2014-2015 are coming in for their Elite Camp. It gives the staff a good opportunity to evaluate players in their offense, and it gets big name players on campus.

Q: Do you expect anyone to commit over the summer? 

Eric Hoffses: Probably not unless it’s a fringe/under the radar prospect and I don’t think the staff is going to push for any of those right now. With a low amount of available scholorships the staff has to be selective. There isn’t a need to panic yet with so much time left. The players can’t sign until November in the early signing period, so they probably won't start committing until late August/September.

Q: Do you think Donahue will over recruit given the number of scholarships available? Can he risk it on the chance that a current player will leave? 

Eric Hoffses: No I don’t. It’s believed that they have 3 scholoroships to give out between the 2013 and 2014 classes right now. They are going to keep at least one open for superstar Noah Vonleh. For those who haven’t heard of Vonleh, he’s one of the highest ranked players in the class of 2014 and he’s from Haverhill, MA. He plays at New Hampton prep, one of the local prep schools that BC has had a very good relationship with (2012 recruit Olivier Hanlan played there). Unlike some other superstars who have came through New England, there’s at least a small chance BC could land him. He still mentions BC in interviews alongside the likes of North Carolina, Syracuse, ect. I think the staff sees a real chance at landing some huge names in the 2014 class. This is the class that people who follow hoops closely in this area have been talking about for years. I’m talking about the type of guys that can come in and average double digits as a freshman. With that being the case they aren’t going to leave themselves shorthanded. It’s going to have to be considered a huge disappointment if BC doesn’t land any of the big names in this class.