2016 Irish Hoops Recruiting Big Board - Too Early Edition

*Players with asterisks reportedly have an offer from Notre Dame

Of all these targets for Notre Dame, the recruitment of Georgia forward Chris Lewis looks to have picked up the most steam in recent months. After receiving his Notre Dame offer in mid-September, Lewis made the trip up to South Bend just two weeks later. Mike Brey is recruiting him heavily himself, including a visit to his high school this past week. Notre Dame does not often sign players from the Southeast, but they seem to have a legitimate shot against more local contenders like Auburn and Georgia Tech.

Massachusetts forward AJ Brodeur received his Notre Dame offer in the past week when Brey made his way up to view one of Brodeur's high school games. He has a lot of regional offers, with Notre Dame being the first offer outside of New England, which might help put him on the map for more schools nationally. Notre Dame often has success when they get in early on players like that. Brodeur, likely a stretch 4 for Brey, also plays for the same AAU program as Irish forward Pat Connaughton.

In addition to seeing Lewis and Brodeur, Mike Brey and his staff have seen a few other 2016 targets with the recent lull in the schedule during finals week. Members of the staff visited forwards Jay Huff and Javin Montgomery-DeLaurier out east, with these recruitments just taking off. Both are likely to earn ACC offers soon.

The staff has also visited more local prospects in forwards (seeing a pattern here?) Joey Brunk from Indianapolis and Austin Davis from Michigan. Notre Dame is playing things a bit slow with Brunk, who has plenty of high-major offers, including Indiana and Purdue, and despite Brunk having visited campus multiple times already. Davis has not earned the high-profiled offers that Brunk has yet, but the Irish can expect to compete with plenty of Big Ten schools for him as well.

Though most of their efforts seem to be geared towards forwards, and for obvious reasons, there are a few guards on the board as well, indicating the staff is interested in the right fit. Point guard Howard Washington from New York, according to most services, has his Irish offer already and appears to be a program fit. Brey has had plenty of success in that state, so it would not surprise if Notre Dame becomes a major factor in his recruitment.

Fort Wayne guard Vijay Blackmon, younger brother of Indiana freshman James Blackmon, Jr., does not have an offer yet but appears to have some interest in becoming a successor to Demetrius Jackson. Blackmon has visited Notre Dame already.

Finally, Indianapolis guard Eron Gordon has an offer according to a couple services. He has national interest at this point, but Indiana appears to be the favorite, which may have implications for Blackmon's recruitment as well.

Las Vegas forward Zach Collins is teammates with 2015 target Stephen Zimmerman and has an Irish offer. He is another national recruit that, much like Zimmerman, looks to always be a longshot for Notre Dame.

Illinois center Barret Benson has visited campus before. He has plenty of Big Ten and Big XII offers already, so the Irish may need to throw their hat in the ring soon if they want a shot at the local big man.

Notre Dame is, however, in with an offer on Sacha Killeya-Jones. The Irish will likely have to compete with the likes of Duke, Virginia, and especially North Carolina for the athletic forward who hails from Chapel Hill.

Not much info out there about the efforts for forwards Marques Bolden, Tyler Cook, Dewan Huell, and Nick Rakocevic, all of whom have heard from the Irish but without much apparent traction yet between the parties. Each of these players look to be trending elsewhere, so if Notre Dame gets involved with any of them, it likely means they believe they have a decent shot.