2011 commit Rakeem Christmas is among the participants in Saturday night’s Boost Mobile Elite 24 game, airing on ESPNU from Venice Beach. The shot blocking specialist will be telling fellow blue-chippers Austin Rivers, LaQuinton Ross and LeBryan Nash (amongst others) to promptly get out of his kitchen.

Christmas is the fourth SU commit to suit up since the event’s debut inception, following Donte’ Greene, Rick Jackson and incoming freshman CJ Fair.

Also competing is Jamesville-Dewitt product DaJuan Coleman, a 6’9/280 center who, if he ends up committing to Syracuse for the 2012 class, would continue a long line of high-ceiling big men at the back of the zone. If Coleman and Christmas match up at some point, it will make for a nice Syracuse-y post battle (Rakeem: Go easy on him, we want him to play with you!).

The game tips at 7:30 EST Saturday night.

Trevor Cooney had a nice game, making a living from beyond the arc. He sank three of eight three-pointers while going 4-10 from the floor. Showing ability on the defensive end as well, Cooney chipped in four thefts.

The Nike Global Challenge may be filled with international teams, but at least for the Americans, make no mistake – this is about showcasing individual talents, while team play is disjointed. With that in mind, as much as can be taken from these kinds of events, Cooney has been steady, while Christmas seems to be embracing contact on defense. Then again, these guys have a whole year ahead of them before they get to SU, so it will be exciting to see what kind of progress they make.

The event kicked off Friday afternoon, and Trevor Cooney and Christmas’ USA East squad lost a close double-overtime game to Team Canada. Cooney played most of the game and tallied 14 points on 4-18 shooting, including a shaky 3-14 performance from three, and added two steals. Christmas only saw 19 minutes of court time but managed to foul out, though he rejected a team-high six shots in that time  and scored six points.

Also in action was Michael Carter-Williams, playing for the USA Midwest team. They coasted to a 127-86 victory over Team Asia. Like Christmas, MCW didn’t get a ton of playing time (just 18 minutes in a 40-minute game), but made the most of it. His line includes nine points on 4-9 shooting, including a three, and five assists to boot . For an in-depth look at how day one shook out, check out Oregon Live, which had staff live-blogging throughout the day.

(Phillyhoops.net)

Also playing a role in his recruitment were Kris Joseph, Trevor Cooney, Michael Carter-Williams and Dion Waiters, the latter three of whom have yet to actually suit up for SU, which is an outstanding feat in and of itself.

Christmas is the latest in a line of top-rated big men to be swayed by SU in swift fashion, joining DaShonte Riley, who backed out of his commitment to Georgetown and Fab Melo, who was thought to be in Rick Pitino’s loving arms until Syracuse swooped in and Melo fell in love with the campus. Any time you can get someone like that in your arsenal and keep him away from a conference rival is frosting on the cake.

Cooney will play alongside Christmas during the Nike Global Challenge this weekend in Oregon. Carter-Williams will also be there, suiting up for the same team as Anthony Davis, who all of a sudden isn’t as appealing as he was a few weeks ago (or even Wednesday, for that matter).

Your move, Thompson. You might want to get going on that 2011 recruiting class of yours.

After Trevor Cooney put up a modest performance in international play, he returned to the US for the Lebron Skills Academy, where he again joined the company of the nation’s top high school talent. After the Lebron Academy, Cooney met up with fellow 2011 commit Michael Carter-Williams in Cleveland for the King City Classic, where the two future Orange guards joined forces for the first time. The two have started to form a strong bond, which can only be of great advantage to the long-term development of SU.

While Cooney recharges his batteries at his Delaware home, Carter-Williams is hard at work at the Nike Peach Jam in North Augusta, South Carolina, where he’s playing for the Boston Area Basketball Club. So far, his performance has been astounding. In his first game, he dropped 44 on the Georgia stars, with nearly half of those points coming from the charity stripe. His seven turnovers are likely a byproduct of having the ball in his hands all the time, where these kinds of events are meant to showcase individual players rather than teams, so I wouldn’t get too worked up over them.

In the first two days of play, each team played a morning game and another one in the evening. The only real knock is that MCW’s shooting was way off in each of the nightcaps (7-39 from the floor in the second games versus 17-32 in the openers), so let’s just be thankful that the NCAA doesn’t operate that way. In the latest round, he put up 32 points on 12-26 shooting, and will play in the quarterfinals Thursday.

Carter-Williams has been committed to the Orange since last winter, and while in South Carolina, is looking to woo Anthony Davis and Rakeem Christmas, both big bodies who would complement the guards perfectly. Coaches Fine, Hopkins and Boeheim have all been in attendance at some point, and Davis has listed SU among his top three choices and plans to take a visit to campus.

You can track MCW, Davis and Christmas at the Peach Jam’s website here.

I’ve talked a little bit about how well Austin Rivers has played, and mentioned that Kyrie Irving is one of the can’t-miss guys of the class of 2010. There are two other players from this team who you should know about,  Marquette commit Vander Blue and power forward Quincy Miller.

Blue will be a freshman this fall for the Golden Eagles and is a combo guard, with great explosiveness and a strong body for someone his size. He didn’t light up the scoreboard, but you will be hearinging a lot out about him, as he’s considered one of the top newcomers in the Big East.

Miller is thought of as the country’s top power forward in the class of 2011, and averaged 14 points and over 10 rebounds in five games of action. He has offers from many of the usual suspects, but at this time, SU isn’t one of them.

Cooney’s line from the final wasn’t very encouraging at first glance, but you have to keep in mind that some of his teammates have a year of development on him, or in the case of Washington’s Abdul Gaddy, two. Still, Cooney put up two very good performances in four games, and the mere fact that Cooney was on the team is a reflection of how highly he’s thought of as a player.

It was a modest performance, he was just the undercard to the main event. The big story Tuesday night was the play of shooting guard Austin Rivers. Rivers played just 22 minutes against the Canadians, but scorched the nets by draining NINE straight threes before missing (he finished 9-12 from deep with 35 points total). It’s not yet known how many moneyballs he converted.

Rivers is currently the #2 prospect in ESPNU’s Top 100, with Duke, UNC, Florida, Kansas and UCLA all vying for his services. The USA will play Brazil for the gold on Wednesday night, and I sorely wish it was on ESPN instead of something called an “NBA Free Agency Summit.”

Next up is a semifinal matchup with the neighbors to the north Tuesday night. No word yet on where Andy Rautins’ loyalties are, but I’ll try to keep you posted.

Sure, it’s not the Dream Team (or Dream Team II, or III or The Redeem Team, for that matter), but Trevor Cooney is making some noise in FIBA Americas U19 Championship currently taking place in San Antonio. He and other top young players whose names you may recognize – Kyrie Irving, Austin Rivers, LeBryan Nash, Vander Blue, to name a few – are suiting up for their home country, and the US hasn’t left anything in doubt to this point.

In its first game against the US Virgin Islands on Saturday, Team USA prevailed in a 131-63 domination. Cooney didn’t start, but had the second-highest scoring total for the US. He had a solid game in 17 minutes off the bench, scoring 15 points on 9-19 shooting, including a 4-9 effort from downtown. Only Nash put up more shots, so it looks like Cooney’s teammates trust him with the ball.

In Sunday’s action, the US rolled again, annihilating Mexico, 114-38. Cooney, along with Austin Rivers, paced the game with 16 points apiece. Cooney shot 6-12 from the floor, including another 4-9 performance from beyond the arc. He still has another full year in high school to go before arriving on campus, but it’s great to see him holding his own and then some on a team full of studs.

Team USA plays Argentina tonight before the semifinals and finals wrap up competition on Tuesday and Wednesday. In another Upstate New York connection, Buffalo head coach Reggie Witherspoon is an assistant for the US team, which is led by Oklahoma head coach Jeff Capel.

Time will tell whether Wes and Johnny Flynn will still be teammates when the season starts, but for now, the Minnesota Timberwolves have picked up some fans in the Northeast. I’m sure there’s no one Johnny would rather have carrying his bags than Wes. In addition, SU fans are positioned for a real treat when the T’Wolves come to the Dome October 15 for an exhibition game against the Pistons.

Wes becomes the 11th Orange to be selected in the first round, and the fifth SU player to be selected in the top five of the NBA draft, following Dave Bing, Derrick Coleman, Billy Owens and you-know-who.

Later in the night, a VelociRautins alert was issued for New York City when the Knicks took Andy with the eighth pick of the second round. Rautins was projected to go somewhere in the draft’s last five picks, if at all, so it’s another feather in the cap for one of the most popular SU players in recent memory. If Andy can crack the Knicks’ roster, he’ll have the chance to make some more memories in Madison Square Garden.

Major props are in order for these two, who went from unknown products to big-time players to hearing their name called on draft night in just a few years.