skip navigation

CoBL College Exposure Camp: Recruiting Notebook (June 21)

06/22/2017, 11:30am EDT
By CoBL Staff

CoBL Staff (@hooplove215)
--

The second CoBL College Exposure Camp brought 120 area high school juniors and seniors to the courts at University of the Sciences in Philadelphia to take part in drills and games in front of dozens and dozens of small-college coaches.

We spoke to quite a few of the rising seniors to see who was currently checking in on their recruitment:

~~~


Harrison Eichelberger (above) has benefitted from going up against some of the nation's top prospects in practice. (Photo: Josh Verlin/CoBL)

Eichelberger emerging from the shadows

There’s only one school in the region where a fluid, 6-foot-7 junior wing who plays hard and listens to his coaches could have serious trouble finding the court.

The Westtown School.

This past year, the Moose’s starting five featured one potential No. 1 selection in the 2018 draft (Texas-bound Mohamed Bamba), a top-five prospect in the 2018 class (6-8 wing Cameron Reddish), another top-50 scorer (Arizona-bound Brandon Randolph), a top-50 junior (6-9 Jake Forrester) and another Division I-level senior forward (Stony Brook-bound Anthony Ochefu). Off the bench, head coach Seth Berger had the luxury of bringing out Noah Collier, a 6-6 freshman who just was one of the finalists for the USA Basketball U16 squad.

To absolutely no one’s surprise, they captured the Friends’ Schools League and PAISAA state championships for the second consecutive season.

What did that mean for Harrison Eichelberger? A lot of cheering from the bench. Not that he minded in the slightest; the West Chester native got the opportunity to go up against some of the best players in the country on a daily basis.

“I’d always like to play more, but being at Westtown has made me the player that I am,” he said. “There’s no better competition in all of America. Playing with them everyday and working out with them and playing against them is the only way that I’m going to get way better.”

With smooth athleticism, a willingness to hit the boards and the ability to face up and put the ball on the floor, Eichelberger is clearly a college-level recruit. Add in a solid GPA and test scores, and the high-academic schools are already giving chase.

“I’ve been talking to Skidmore, Vassar, Franklin & Marshall, John Jay, Carnegie Mellon, Washington & Lee,” Eichelberger said. “A lot of schools at the Division III level.”

With Bamba, Randolph and Ochefu moving on to their respective schools in just a few weeks, there will be minutes available next year, though Collier and rising sophomore T.J. Berger are likely to scoop up a lot of them.

No matter what, just being part of the Moose program has prepared Eichelberger for the next level from both an on-court and mental perspective.

“When we come into the gym, people want to beat us,” he said. “I think that it’s definitely a lot of pressure on us to win, but I think with that, it just makes people in our gym on our team work ten times harder.”

~~~


Malik Slay (above) picked up an offer from D-II Millersville, his first, shortly after the camp. (Photo: Josh Verlin/CoBL)

Quick Hits

-- Millersville offered Downingtown East guard Malik Slay following his performance at Wednesday’s camp. Slay mentioned that he had also been in contact with East Stroudsburg, St. Thomas Aquinas, and other Division II programs. The 6-2 rising senior plans to work on his shooting and defensive abilities over the offseason, skills which will up his value further.

-- Dominic Dunn, Camden Catholic’s 6-5 small forward, says he has talked with a number of schools at the D-II and D-III levels, including Amherst, Babson, WPI, TCNJ, Arcadia, and York, among others. Dunn will be visiting many of the schools on his list during the summer.

-- Tyrel Bladen, a 6-9 rising senior forward at Coatesville, received his first offer from Wingate University. He has also been in contact with D-I schools Binghamton, Central Connection, Robert Morris and D-II schools, E. Stroudsburg, Slippery Rock University, and Philadelphia University

-- Conwell-Egan wing Eric Esposito has sparked the interest of Colgate, Wager, Rider, Bloomsburg, and multiple other D-II and D-III colleges. The 6-4 guard, who plays for Philly Pride, enjoys the extra eyes on him during AAU play. “If you have a good game, you get a lot more texts,” he said. “It’s just a good feeling to get those calls and text messages from all the colleges.”

-- Rochester, NYU, Gwynedd-Mercy, Scranton, and other regional D-III schools have been contacting 6-3 La Salle HS guard Sean Simon.

-- Bishop Shanahan point guard David Angelo said that he’s getting looks from a bunch of D-II and D-III colleges such as Johns Hopkins, Franklin & Marshall, Long Island, and MIT.

-- Germantown Friends big man Pietro Berghella has attracted a decent amount of Division III interest from the likes of Haverford, Tufts, Wesleyan, and Johns Hopkins, among others. D-II USciences has also reached out. Berghella, who stands at 6-foot-8, will be taking over the lead scoring role at Germantown Friends this coming seasons, which means he will be facing more double-teams than before.

-- The backcourt pairing of Ahmad Bickley and Rodney Carson at Cheltenham has seen quite a bit of recruiting attention lately. Bickley, a 5-8 point guard, has heard from many regional D-II and D-III schools, including Millersville, Nyack, Cabrini, Arcadia, and Bloomsburg, while the 6-3 Carson has been on the phone with East Stroudsburg and a number of D-II colleges.

-- St. Vincent Pallotti (Md.) 6-5 wing Amir Warrick has been in talks with a pair of D-II colleges in St. Thomas Aquinas and Lincoln, as well as numerous D-III schools such as Hamilton.

-- Cardinal O’Hara 6-1 rising senior Garrett Ripp said he has been in contact with Penn State-Brandywine, among other schools.

-- Tyler Norwood has an offer from Chestnut Hill as well as interest from D-IIs West Chester, Millersville, Philadelphia University and St. Thomas Aquinas. The 5-11 Penncrest guard said, “it’s a process; I’m looking forward to seeing who calls.”


HS Coverage:

Recruiting News:

Tag(s): Home  Recruiting  Zach Drapkin