12 @ 12: Weekend randomness

1. I held my annual Georgia Hoops Fall Showcase over the weekend at the New Birth church in Lithonia, Georgia and came away impressed with the effort level put forward by the players at the event. The tone was set early by our amazing staff of coaches, the best you will find at any fall showcase nationally, and the players took the attitude and ran with it. We talked about taking home three things from camp regardless of the sport that we all love. I’d love to hear the feedback from the players and parents on what the three things they took home with them. Email me at georgiahoops@gmail.com.

2. Top 2010 prospect from the Georgia Hoops Fall Showcase: Cameron Solomon, SG, Lovejoy & Chad Johnson, PG/SG, Westlake

3. Top 2011 prospect from the Georgia Hoops Fall Showcase: Henry Brooks, PF, Miller Grove & Ryon Riggins, PF, North Gwinnett

4. Top 2012 prospect from the Georgia Hoops Fall Showcase: Kyle Meyer, C, Northview

5. Top 2013 prospect from the Georgia Hoops Fall Showcase: A.J. Davis, SF, Greater Atlanta Christian

6. For more detailed coverage from camp, be sure to check out ESPN Recruiting, Scout.com and D1Spects.com. I’ll be running daily stories on D1Spects.com regarding the camp.

7. Jerry Meyer of Rivals.com tackled an interesting question in his mailbag over the weekend regarding the top seven players he's scouted in high school. In order, he picked:

1. LeBron James
2. John Wall
3. Mike Gilchrist
4. Greg Oden
5. Dwight Howard
6. Michael Beasley
7. Brandon Knight

My list looks a little different:

1. LeBron James
2. Dwight Howard
3. Greg Oden
4. Kevin Durant
5. John Wall
6. Derrick Rose
7. Michael Beasley

8. Do you use Twitter? I do. So do a lot of college coaches. Dave Telep of Scout.com tackled the issue and it’s role in recruiting. He and I share the same belief that it offers zero advantage in the recruiting process. Telep surveyed a number of coaches about it’s effectiveness.

9. If you missed out on who was visiting where for Midnight Madness, Scout.com did a great job of tracking down the lists for schools across the country.

10. In all of my years of covering recruiting, I’ve never heard a recruit say he committed to the school because a coach awkwardly danced in front of the student body, drove in on a race car or preached to the followers for 10 minutes. Rappers, dunk contests and intra-squad scrimmages are fun, sure, but they aren’t the recruiting tool that they are perceived to be.

11. There seems to be this belief that if you aren’t committed to a school before your senior year than you are behind pace in the recruiting calendar. Wrong. What’s the rush? It is perfectly okay to still be uncommitted right now. With the April period closed for evaluations, college coaches are still identify, even in October, as to who they want to pursue during the high school season. Besides, with the constant changing of coaches, the increased number of transfers and now the departure of players to not only the NBA but to international endeavors, teams are always scrambling in the spring to figure out their recruiting plan. Word of the wise to prospects: Be patient, play hard and make teams make you a priority.

12. Here are my 12 football thoughts from the weekend:

A. The Texas-Oklahoma game just didn’t seem to have the same kind of juice this year. Neither does the Big 12 for that matter.

B. Matt Ryan and Joe Flacco, last year’s star rookie quarterbacks, never looked like Mark Sanchez and Matthew Stafford have this year.

C. The New York Giants entered Sunday’s match-up against the New Orleans Saints with a 5-0 record. But the combined record of the teams the Giants defeated five games into the season was 6-19. Clearly the record was deceiving.

That made me wonder, of the four undefeated teams in the NFL right now, who could be like the Giants? Indiapolis, Denver, Minnesota and New Orleans are all undefeated. The combined record for teams that Denver and New Orleans have defeated is 14-15, the best of the four. The combined record for teams beaten by Minnesota, the only 6-0 team in the league, is 11-23. Indianapolis opponents combine for 10-18.

D. It took Peyton Manning five games to finally get into his groove last year en route to a MVP season. Tom Brady looked like he is finally finding his old form, albeit the lowly Tennessee Titans, on Sunday. He was making pinpoint passes in the snow. If he has time to plant his front foot, forget about it. That pass will be complete and likely six points.

E. Have the Tennessee Titans lost their jerseys this season? The Oilers gear has been the go-to uniform this season for Jeff Fisher’s club. The way the team is playing, maybe they should just hand in all of the jerseys and call the year a wash.

F. Love ‘em or hate ‘em, Brett Favre is still simply amazing.

G. Love ‘em or hate ‘em, Ray Lewis is simply amazing.

H. When the Atlanta Falcons signed former Jacksonville Jaguar Mike Peterson in the offseason, there was a collective groan from fans over the disappointment in the lack of movement on the defensive end. Once again, Thomas Dimitroff has proven he and head coach Mike Smith know much more about you and I regarding football personnel. Peterson is the hardest hitting player on the Falcons and has made big play after big play on a mediocre Falcon defense.

I. Speaking of my hometown Falcons, Matt Ryan is simply amazing to watch. He already has it, whatever it is, in just a season and five games into his NFL career. I wonder how many Super Bowls rings he’ll be fitter for.

J. Peter King, one of my favorite sportswriters on the planet and inspiration for this “Weekend Randomness” 12 @ 12, wrote: “It is a mark of how good Ben Roethlisberger is that he threw for 417 yards, with two touchdowns, and no one noticed. It's becoming routine.” So, so true. Did anyone outside of the Steel City see those numbers? Sheesh.

K. Wow, what a fantasy football weekend. It was the best scoring Sunday of the year. If your team didn’t score in the 100s, you probably lost.

L. Who is the Heisman leader right now? Your guess is as good as mine.

M. Who is the early NFL MVP leader right now? With Indianapolis on a bye week, Peyton Manning didn’t move up or down on my MVP list. However, Drew Brees has the offense playing at a Super Bowl caliber team in New Orleans. He shredded the Giants defense for 369 yards passing on 23-30 attempts and four touchdowns inside the Superdome.