Dominguez (Los Angeles) swingman Jordan Hamilton is considering Texas, Syracuse, UConn, Kansas, Cal and USC. Chris Williams/IconSMI

Ready for his close up, Renardo Sidney, considered by some to be the top player in the class of 2009, wiped the sweat off his brow following his final game of the day at the Rumble in the Bronx earlier this month. "I'm just trying to lose some weight right now," says Sidney, a 6-foot-10 forward who currently tips the scale at 250 but hopes to get down to 245. "Just getting back to the weight room after this."

He will have plenty of opportunities to shed that weight as the spotlight follows him and his contemporaries in heated gyms from North Augusta, S.C., to Las Vegas throughout July. An understudy to the likes of Greg Oden and Greg Monroe in recent summers, Sidney, whose motor and motivation are challenged by some recruiters who see him play down to competition at times, is now a main attraction. "The older guys have told me about what to expect with the attention," Sidney says.

A senior-to-be at Fairfax (Los Angeles), Sidney, has attended three high schools in three years. In 2006, his parents, Renardo Sr. and Patricia, uprooted the family's Delta stakes in Jackson, Miss., for Lakewood, Calif., enrolling their son at Artesia High before transferring to Fairfax last summer. Sidney, who says the family migrated west to market both his basketball skills and his 17-year-old sister Tiarra's modeling career, expects to whittle away his list of potential college landing spots while shrinking his waist. "I'm trying to work on some package deals," says Sidney, who includes Louisville, Texas, USC, UCLA, Kansas, Florida and Texas A&M as his top suitors. "Antonio Bigelow, Kawad [Leonard], Eric [Swoopes], Lance [Stephenson], and Jordan [Hamilton] are all guys I'd like to play with."

To Sonny Vaccaro, a savvy veteran of the summer scene, who assisted recruits in their decisions when he ran the ABCD Camp and discovered Sidney at his camp Next when he was in the eighth grade, those packages are a dream. "The next time he sees all those names together on a team will be in the NBA," says Vaccaro. "That just won't happen."

Stephenson, a 6-5 guard from Coney Island, N.Y., who plays best when the lights are on, lists USC, UCLA and Kansas as his schools of choice. He will travel slightly less than Sidney as he plans on attending the Steve Nash Skills Academy in Elizabeth, N.J., this week and then trying out for Team USA U-18 team in Washington, D.C., next week. "I think he's about as ready as any kid could be at this stage in his career," says Stephenson's father, Lance Sr.

Though Stephenson and Sidney have been regulars on the AAU circuit for four years, Hamilton has enjoying growing attention in the last year. A bouncy, self-described Carmelo Anthony-type of swingman, who plays with Sidney on the L.A. Dream Team AAU program, Hamilton also has numerous suitors.

"I'm pretty open right now," says Hamilton, who is close family friends with Dominguez alumnus Marcus Williams of the New Jersey Nets. Hamilton says he is considering Texas, Syracuse, UConn, Kansas, Cal and USC.

How long courting colleges will have to wait for word from the trio is unknown.

Along the trail

• The leader in the summer recruiting clubhouse is by far North Carolina. With commitments from Dexter Strickland (Linden, N.J.), John Henson (Pound Rock, Texas), Leslie McDonald (Memphis, Tenn.), California twins Travis and David, coach Roy Williams and his staff have reloaded for when Tywon Lawson and Tyler Hansbrough depart next spring.

• As Indiana reconstructs its program, former Hoosiers coach Mike Davis, now the coach at UAB, is out to prove that Memphis isn't the only Conference USA school on the recruiting map with the verbal commitment from 6-9, 250-pound Mobile, Ala. product DeMarcus Cousins. Point guard Tamir Jackson from Paterson, N.J. -- a nice complementary commitment -- offers a steady hand to the offense as well.

• The annual Peach Jam in North Augusta, S.C. -- a Tiger Woods tee shot from the greens of Augusta, Ga. -- is the summer's best event and it plays out in the four recruiter-friendly gyms of the Riverview Park Activities Center. The locals flock to watch evening games, and coaches stand and sit sentinel at games where their targets play. If you're lucky, you can watch Tim Floyd and Billy Gillispie identify their next favorite sub-sophomore recruit.

• Akron, Ohio, is not known as a hoops hotbed, but from July 6-9 it will be an unofficial NABC convention when the LeBron James Skills Academy comes to town. In competition for players with Reebok's Rbk U camp run simultaneously at Philadelphia University, recruits from James' camp boast about the chance to play against and learn from Akron's favorite son. Wherever the players go, the coaches follow.