The skinny on 15 stars to be as recruiting heats up

	Recruiting Calendar The main events during the critical July evaluation period Dates Event Sponsor Location 6-8 It Takes Five Classic Tournament Adidas Cincinnati 6-9 LeBron James Skills Academy Nike Akron, Ohio 6-10 Rbk U Basketball Camp Reebok Philadelphia 12-15 Peach Jam Invitational Tournament Nike North Augusta, S.C. 22-26 Super 64 Tournament Adidas Las Vegas 22-26 The Main Event Tournament None Las Vegas 22-26 Reebok Summer Championship Reebok Henderson, Nev. 24-27 AAU Super Showcase Tournament N/A Orlando 27-31 AAU 19-and-under National Championship N/A Orlando 27-31 Double Pump Best of the Summer Tournament Adidas Los Angeles Note: July 16-21 is a NCAA-mandated dead period. Coaches may not evaluate or contact prospects.

The more things change, the more they stay the same.

For all the hullabaloo surrounding the news last fall that Nike was dismantling its All-America camp and Sonny Vaccaro was folding up his tent at the ABCD Camp, the summer evaluation period that begins on Friday will look an awful lot like the dozen or so summers that came before. There are still three main players in the sneaker game -- Nike, Adidas and Reebok -- and a player's schedule still depends mostly on which company is forking over cash and graft to that player's summer program. (Incidentally, while most of those summer teams are often characterized as "AAU teams," that is a misnomer since most of them in fact have no real relationship with the Amateur Athletic Union.)

The changes that did occur will be mostly cosmetic and will only affect the first week of events. Instead of holding its All-American camp in Indianapolis, Nike will stage the LeBron James Skills Academy in Akron, Ohio, during the first four days of the period. That gathering was preceded by a series of position camps around the country hosted by Nike athletes such as Steve Nash, Vince Carter, Kobe Bryant and Amare' Stoudemire, but because they occur before the evaluation period begins, college coaches may not attend. Instead of sponsoring Vaccaro's ABCD Camp in Teaneck, N.J., Reebok will have a similar event in Philadelphia. The rest of the calendar remains pretty much intact.

With a deft assist from recruiting maven Bob Gibbons, whose annual calendar of July events is the most indispensable document in the recruiting game, I've identified the most significant events in the adjoining sidebar. There are dozens of other lesser events going on around the country this month, and college coaches may only attend those that have been officially certified by the NCAA. If you'd like to see a complete list of NCAA-certified summer events, click here.

It's good to know the summer's main events, but what's really important is to know the summer's main players. I took a preseason tour in June to two outstanding events: the NBA Players Association Camp in Charlottesville, Va., and USA Basketball's Youth Development Festival in Colorado Springs. Between those two events I got a chance to see nearly 150 of the top high school players in America. I've selected 15 players to highlight in advance of the recruiting whirlwind.