This week will begin a new era in NCAA men's basketball recruiting as the NCAA has instituted new legislation, and will comprise (4) different Basketball Academies throughout the United States, during the NCAA July Evaluation Period for Division-I college coaches to evaluate top-rated basketball talent. As a result, more than 300 different college prospects from around the country will organize at Grand Canyon University this week to take part in the West Regional Academy.

For whatever strange reason, there will not be many Arizona prospects actually in participation for the GCU West Academy. There are only (12) total Arizona prospects in this week's camp, out of 320 total prospects. Instead, there will be many prospects from around the country, with hundreds of college coaches in attendance for the camp to evaluate - a welcome sight in the state of Arizona, especially after the recent success of the Section 7 Tournament in June. Unfortunately for the long list of top-rated Arizona prospects that inhabit the state, they will not be able to take advantage of the many college coaches that will be in Arizona this week.

Either way, it will be a welcome sight this week to have the NCAA utilizing the state of Arizona once again for one of their NCAA-certified events - proving that the state of Arizona's basketball culture's exposure to the national basketball community continues to grow, develop and improve at a time when Arizona basketball is reaching new heights.

The Arizona Preps' staff will be in attendance this week to cover the event, which will run for (6) days and will feature prospects from (13) different state across the U.S. Here is some more information on this week's NCAA Academy . . .

What is the NCAA College Basketball Academy?

The NCAA College Basketball Academy is a new developmental boys basketball academy for prospective student-athletes in the classes of 2020, 2021 and 2022. The academy was created and designed to give prospective student-athletes a sample of the college basketball experience.

The two sessions of the 2019 NCAA College Basketball Academy will take place July 22-25 (Monday-Thursday) and July 25-28 (Thursday-Sunday) at four regional sites.

• Grand Canyon University (Phoenix, Arizona, WEST).
• University of Houston (Houston, Texas, SOUTH).
• University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (Champaign, Illinois, MIDWEST).
• University of Connecticut (Storrs, Connecticut, EAST).