Alex Murphy guards St. Andrew's Michael LaPlante during action in January at Barrington.

Journal photo / Ruben W. Perez

BARRINGTON -- It was only a few weeks away from his senior year of high school back in Meriden, Conn., when Jay Murphy knew he'd get the chance to play basketball in college. How times have changed.

When Murphy first met Dr. Tom Davis, then the coach at Boston College, he was only hoping to play college ball. That first meeting proved positive enough that Murphy, a 6-10 big man who could shoot the lights out, ended up choosing BC instead of Connecticut, Providence College or Canisius. He signed a letter of intent with the Eagles in the spring of 1980.

"Going into my senior year, I didn't really think about being recruited," said Murphy, who lives in South Kingstown. "Today it's a little different.

Fast forward nearly 30 years and Murphy has a bird's eye view of college recruiting. His oldest son, Erik, is a 6-10 freshman at the University of Florida. He chose Billy Donovan's Gators after entertaining offers from UConn, Virginia, Marquette, Ohio State and other major powers.

Now Murphy's second son, Alex, is entering the recruiting process. A 6-8 forward who can shoot, pass and run the floor, Alex Murphy is destined to have his pick of colleges. At an open gym at St. Mark's School, his prep school in Massachusetts, on Sunday, nearly 30 schools sent representatives to watch Murphy and his team. Two teammates are also major prospects -- especially Kaleb Tarczewski, a 6-10 sophomore center -- but Murphy is the team's chief target. Although he's barely 16 years old, Murphy has already been offered scholarships by Providence, URI, BC, UConn, Notre Dame, Arizona, Kansas, Florida, Michigan, Indiana and Wake Forest. Coaches from UCLA, Duke and North Carolina are expressing interest as well.

While Murphy seems destined to rival his brother, Chris Herren (signed with BC), Tony Robertson (UConn) and Rakim Sanders (BC) as the most heavily recruited players from the area in the past 15 years, he isn't the only Rhode Islander seeing a flood of recruiters this month. Ricky Ledo, a 17-year-old sophomore at St. Andrew's, is hearing from a similar array of schools. Ledo and Mike Carter-Williams, a junior guard at St. Andrew's, are both national recruits.

"It's amazing," said Ledo, who is an athletic, 6-5 guard with deep shooting range. "It's fun. I'm only a sophomore and I'm kind of overwhelmed, so I like all the schools now. I go home and there is a stack of letters all the time."

Ricky Ledo

Journal photo / Bob Thayer

NCAA rules say that coaches can watch - but not talk to - sophomores like Murphy and Ledo right now. But they know they must be seen. That's why PC coach Keno Davis, URI's Jim Baron and assistant coaches from BC, Villanova, Kansas, Notre Dame, Indiana and Penn State have all journeyed to Barrington over the last two weeks, simply to watch pick-up games that almost always feature Ledo and Carter-Williams going head-to-head.

"It's been very busy," said St. Andrew's coach Mike Hart. "It reminds me of when Tony (Robertson) first came here. Kids are being recruited earlier and earlier and committing to colleges earlier."

Neither Murphy or Ledo is anywhere close to a decision. Erik Murphy chose Florida in the middle of his junior year. That's a time table that Alex Murphy may replicate. "He's too young to make decisions," said Jay Murphy. "We have a lot of schools he'd like a chance to see before any of that happens."

Ledo's life seems far too busy for any major decisions. He just enrolled at St. Andrew's after two years at Bishop Hendricken. He said that after talking with his father, Ricardo Carrasco, and his grandparents, he felt a move to prep school was right for him.

"I liked Hendricken, but I talked it over with my dad and just felt that it was a better fit here for me," Ledo said. "There's a tougher basketball schedule and I was able to reclassify as a sophomore, so I'm the class of 2012 now."

Ledo met Alex Murphy when they were teammates on a Rhode Island Breakers AAU team as 13-year-olds. Last summer, Ledo joined Murphy again on the AAU circuit and their Expressions Elite team was a power. During one game in Orlando, Fla., Ledo realized that his profile was taking off.

"We had a real good team with a lot of players and by the end of the tournament, coaches you only see on TV - like Coach K (Mike Krzyzewski) of Duke -- were standing around the court watching," he said.

Because of their summer play, recruiting analysts are ranking Murphy and Ledo high among the elite players in the Class of 2012. New England Recruiting Report has Murphy second and Ledo fourth among sophomores in the region. ESPN.com pegs Ledo as the 13th top sophomore in the country.

Hart, Ledo's new coach, says he wishes college coaches weren't recruiting sophomores so hard, but he understands the business of the game.

"It's all new to him and it is hard to keep in perspective," Hart said. "We're on him to be more humble and understand the important thing is his school work and his team here at St. Andrew's. It's an exciting thing for a kid."

kmcnamar@projo.com