lakey commits

SoCalHoops Recruiting News

Russell Lakey Commits to Vanderbilt--(March 10, 2000)

Our friends at Recruiting USA broke this story first, and that's only fitting since Dave Benezra is also the travel team coach of the LA Rockfish, the same team that Russell Lakey (6'-0" Sr. PG) played for the past three years. Here's the story: Lakey took a trip to Vanderbilt last weekend, and enjoyed it so much that he apparently moved up his timetable to make the aanouncement, and told Recruiting USA last night that he had committed. Lakey, from Harvard-Westlake, is a solid point guard with excellent ability to penetrate, jump stop and score, and he can also hit the three with great regularity. Russell first made a real name for himself when, as a sophomore shooting guard, he was forced to move from the two to the one to take over for the injured Victor Munoz. Since then, Russell has handled the point, and led Harvard-Westlake to what many thought was an improbably successful season, with the Wolverines losing only one league game, taking their first title in the post-Collins twin era, and making it to the quarterfinals of the CIF Southern Section III-AA playoffs before losing. Russell has also played with the LA Rockfish for the last three summers; two years ago, his Rockfish team won the "B" division at the Big Time in Vegas, and last summer they made it to the final four before being eliminated.

Russell chose Vanderbilt after looking at a number of other schools, including among them Cornell, Columbia, Pepperdine, Loyola Marymount, and Cal.