Basketball Recruiting: Irish Commit, Targets Move In New 2021 Rivals150
An unusual summer still provided enough opportunity for in-person evaluations on high school players across the country.
And after that summer spent on the road and streaming AAU games, Rivals’ basketball recruiting analysts Eric Bossi, Corey Evans and Dan McDonald have unveiled the updated 2021 Rivals150 and new position rankings. Notre Dame recruits moved in both.
First, Notre Dame's lone commit, three-star wing JR Konieczny, moved down two spots to No. 137 overall. The South Bend (Ind.) St. Joseph senior committed to Notre Dame last August after receiving an offer earlier that summer. Konieczny remained at No. 33 among small forwards, where he was before.
Elsewhere, priority target Blake Wesley moved down in the top 150 but up in the shooting guard position rankings. The four-star guard from South Bend's Riley High School moved down one spot, to 96th, in the Rivals150. He moved up four spots at his position, though, to become the No. 21-ranked shooting guard in the country.
Wesley released a top 12 last month and included Notre Dame. Last week, Bossi put in a FutureCast for the Irish to land him.
Other remaining 2021 targets moved in the rankings as well: four-star forward DaRon Holmes Jr. of Montverde Academy (Fla.) dropped six spots to No. 36, while four-star Oak Park (Ill.) Fenwick wing Bryce Hopkins climbed up to No. 30 from No. 34.
Holmes is ranked as the nation's No. 9 power forward (down one spot). Hopkins is the ninth-ranked small forward, a decrease of two spots due to two players who made large climbs in the Rivals150 leaping him.
Notre Dame offered Holmes in July and Hopkins in August. Both are longer shots for the Irish to land. Hopkins, a former Louisville commitment, picked up an offer from Kentucky last month, and the Wildcats have the last five predictions in his Rivals FutureCast. The FutureCast for Holmes has 100 percent of the picks in for Arizona.
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