With all the negitivity that surrounds the summer basketball circut and most notably the July recruiting period theres stories like the one of Dillon Graham that show how important the July evaluation period is. Dillon Graham a 6"4 shooting gauard from Orlando Florida (First Academy) came into the summer with  a zero star rating, no national profile and offers from a few low to mid major programs with ambitions of landing an offer from his hometown school UCF. That all changed in early july when Graham put on a show at the Adidas Invitational semifinal in front of a slew of high major coaches.

 As he had hoped for Dillon received his offer from UCF but what came next was nothing short of amazing considering his national status at the beginning of the summer. Dillon begin to reel in high major offers including Kansas, Louisville, Maryland, Miami, Kansas State, Florida State and USF. In a seemingly snap of the finger Graham had become a hot commodity.

 "It's unbelievable," Graham said. "I never imagined myself getting offers from schools like Kansas or talking to coach Pitino. That's crazy."

"There's no question -- none of this would be possible without summer basketball," said Graham's mother, Renee Graham. "We've had mixed emotions with AAU in the past. But this whole circuit thing that he's doing right now is really terrific. These coaches would've never seen him without it. With him being at such a small school, he just wouldn't have had these opportunities at all. We're just grateful."  

 Graham may or may not ever suit up in a cardinal jersey but this is a great story to follow considering how much is put into how many stars a high school prospect has behind his name or whaat big time high school/ Prep school they attend. This is just an example of how the July evaluation period can give a voice and a face to the little guy. The one no one has ever heard of but put in just as much work as the big name 5 star with a laundry list of offers. Where ever Dillon Graham ends up I wish him the best.