National Signing Day

Today marks the beginning of the early signing period for national letters of intent for top basketball recruits. By signing an national letter of intent (abbreviated NLI or LOI depending on who you read), a recruit commits to the school for at least one year, and receives a scholarship for that year. More importantly, signing an NLI prohibits a recruit from being the subject of any more recruiting. The verbal commitments that players make carry literally no weight when it comes to actually playing for a school. The NLI is the first, very important, step in making sure that recruits land on campus.

Xavier will be waiting for five letters of intent today. JP Macura, Edmond Sumner, Makinde London, Sean O'Mara, and Trevon Bluiett have all verbally committed to the Musketeers and will, hopefully, fax their letters in today. With that delightful anachronism still in place, we launch forward into National Signing Day.

Update:

JP Macura and Edmond Sumner have sent NLI's in to Xavier already today. When Macura verbally (or whatever you call Twitter) committed to Xavier we told you "What Macura does best is shoot the ball. Blessed with a good sense of where to be on offense, Macura has range well beyond the arc and the confidence to shoot it from back there. That doesn't mean that the rail thin 185 pounder can't get to the rim, but his slight frame will certainly need to fill out before he becomes a real menace in the lane. Rising rapidly on the scouting boards, Macura has seen himself listed in the top 25 shooting guards by both Rivals and Scout. Offers from Butler, Creighton, Miami (Fl), Minnesota, and Kansas State, among many others, were not enough to pull the guard away from Coach Mack."

Sumner is an incredibly thin combo guard of whom we said "He also shows good range on his jump shot, demonstrating himself to be a threat a couple of steps beyond the line with a slightly low but fairly quick release. Adding weight to his frame is going to be Sumner's number one challenge as he heads through his senior year and on into college. He picked up early offers from schools like Kent State, Toledo, and UMass, but really started getting attention from the big boys as he got taller. Sumner obviously caught Xavier's eye, but Illinois, Michigan, and Michigan State were all actively pursuing the Beverly Hills, MI native. If he continues to develop and dodges all the usual hurdles between a verbal commitment and coming into the team, he has every chance of being a star for the Muskies in the Big East."

We are still waiting for word on the other three verbal commits that Coach Mack and Xavier received. As soon as we know something, we'll pass it along.