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Wednesday Roundup: Walk-ons, Harrellson, Tyreke

by Alex Bozich in Media | April 16th, 2008

roundupia2.jpg– Joining the legacy established by Ryan Tapak, Adam Ahlfeld and Brett Finkelmeier will be Rochester (IN) guard Kory Barnett and Carmel (IN) guard Daniel Moore who have both agreed to walk-on in Bloomington, according to multiple reports. While it may not seem like a big deal to land two walk-ons, both of these kids are what the program needs: they’ll show up everyday with the right attitude, work hard, do well in school and be proud to wear the IU uniform. Moore turned down a free ride at Boston University for the opportunity to don the cream and crimson. Congrats are in order for both guys.

– A friend of Inside the Hall, Jody Demling of the Louisville Courier-Journal, has a brief update on Josh Harrellson, the junior college forward from Illinois who is reportedly interested in Indiana. Jody lists IU as “still in the mix,” but this looks like a two horse race between St. Louis and Kentucky. Go Rick Majerus. The Hoosier Scoop also has an update on Harrellson.

– And finally, in a shocking development, a day after Derrick Rose declared for the NBA Draft, Tyreke Evans committed to Memphis. Those of you unfamiliar with Tyreke, he’s a top 10 player in the 2008 class and a good friend of everybody’s favorite basketball ambassador, William Wesley. Evans, by the way, was also involved in a shooting a couple of months ago. The reason I bring this up for you, the Indiana fan, is that our former prized recruit, Devin Ebanks, has lined up his visits and the final one is Memphis. It’ll be interesting to see if Ebanks lands alongside Evans in Memphis. I would like my chances if my name were John Vincent Calipari.

Who is Worldwide Wes?

by Alex Bozich in Media | July 18th, 2007

Derrick RoseIf you’re a fan of basketball at any level, you owe it to yourself to check out a recent article by Alex French in GQ about William Wesley. Wesley, known as Worldwide Wes, is one of the most powerful men in the sport of basketball. He’s also one of the most mysterious.

That’s what makes this story so fascinating. Nobody really knows what Wesley does, but everybody in basketball knows him.

He’s not an agent. He doesn’t work for the NBA. He doesn’t work for a shoe company. He doesn’t work for a university. Who exactly does he work for?

I won’t go into more specifics on the article, but just to give you an idea of Wesley’s involvement, here is a brief list of the names mentioned in the article: LeBron James, Leandro Barbosa, Allen Iverson, Dajuan Wagner, Tyreke Evans and Derrick Rose.

And to give you a sense of the power and influence this man possesses, he’s speculated as one of the major reasons LeBron James left his former agent Aaron Goodwin for Leon Rose. Leon Rose, by the way, is a good friend of Worldwide Wes.

As far as the IU connection to this article, check out the following passage:

This afternoon’s main attraction is one Derrick Rose, a six-foot-three-inch blisteringly fast point guard from Chicago’s Simeon Career Academy. Journalists and insiders who have followed Rose’s career also noted Wes’s presence on the sideline of Derrick’s AAU games last summer. Rose’s college choices came down to Memphis, Illinois, and Indiana. One journalist told me, “When I saw the list, I knew Derrick was going to Memphis.” The prediction was correct.

So what role did Wesley have in Derrick Rose choosing Memphis over Indiana?

We’ll probably never know, but Wes is pals with Wagner, who played at Memphis, as well as John Calipari. Go ahead and use your imagination.

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