williams visits southern idaho

socalogo.gif (8739 bytes)
SoCalHoops Recruiting News

Alfred Williams Takes A Visit To The
College Of Southern Idaho--(Apr. 17, 2000)

SPEAnthonyWilliamsEJHarris.jpg (7612 bytes) Alfred Williams (6'-3" Sr. SG) from Bakersfield HS, who got everyone looking earlier this year when his Bakersfield Drillers team upset heavy favorite and then-nationally ranked Washington Union with the DeShawn Stevenson at one of the first big high school tournaments of the season, the BCW "Battle of Central California" participated in the Dada Classic All-Star game this past Saturday at the Pyramid. Alfred, a sometimes spectacular shooter, and at other times just plain inconsistent, shot 5-7 from the field at the Dada, 4-4 from the line and had an incredible 9 assists (incredible because he's not even a point guard), and finished with 14 points in just 16 minutes of play. . . .not bad for a little under a half a game. . .

We had the chance to spend some time with Alfred on Friday at the Dada luncheon and got to speak with him a bit about his plans for the future. We had earlier reported back in October and November, after speaking with his former high school coach, that Alfred would likely be attending Bakersfield City College. It seems that he doesn't have the core courses completed. "No, I came up short in some of the courses I need," Alfred said on Friday. "But I plan to improve my academics at a JC and then transfer to a four year school."

We then bumped into Alfred again on Sunday afternoon over at LACC watching the Rockfish Spring League All-Star games, and no, he wasn't there talking with Mike Miller, the head coach of LACC (at least if he was we didn't see it), but it turns out that Alfred was in the company of Jay Cyriac, one of the assistant coaches at the College of Southern Idaho, a JUCO school located in Twin Falls, Idaho. Alfred and Jay were just leaving the gym and heading off to the airport when we bumped into them, and Alfred was on his way to Idaho for an official visit. "Yeah, I'm looking forward to seeing the school and checking it out," Alfred told us. "I want to get into a different environment and I think Idaho will be good for me."

For those who don't know, the College of Southern Idaho (23-5) plays in the SWAC (Scenic West Athletic Conference) and this year they were the champions of District 18, beating Dixie JC 84-76 in the championship game and earning a trip to the National Junior College Championship game in Hutchinson, Kansas. They ultimately lost in the quarterfinals to No. 2 Southeastern Iowa 74-71 in a furious comeback for Idaho, which was down by 14 points but couldn't quite close the gap.

CSI is also the spot where Kenny Brunner (5'-11" So. PG) spent the last year trying to rehabilitate not only his image but also his recruting prospects, but it now seems that Kenny is going to struggle just a bit longer. While several schools had been prominently mentioned as possible destinations for Kenny, including San Diego State and USC, it now seems that his recruiting is at an absolute standstill. San Diego State has backed away and so has USC (actually we understand that the Trojans had backed away once before, last year before Kenny ended up at CSI).

If Alfred Williams ends up at CSI, as seems likely, he'll have lots of SoCal guys to hang with, including several SoCal natives and a few more who aren't native but who spent a good deal of their summers down here playing in tournaments and at camps. Looking at this past year's College of Southern Idaho roster is sort of like looking at one of those "whatever happened to. . . " lists. Remember these names from last year's high school class of great seniors? How about Kamron Leonard (6'-8" Fr. F) from JW North in Riverside? He's there, and this year he played in 9 games for CSI. . . Jerry Dupree (6'-7" Fr F) from Moreno Valley's Valley View HS also attended CSI, playing in 22 games, shooting 53% from the field and averaging 6.8 ppg. How about Cardell Butler (6'-4" Fr. G) from San Francisco, California? Mike Hood (6'-3" So. G) from Beaverton, Oregon; Blandon Ferguson (6'-3" Fr. F) from Oakland; Matt Siebrandt (6'-8" Fr F) from Reno, Nevada; Larz Stewart (6'-7" So. F ) from Eugene, Oregon, and Matt Brown (6'-9" So. F) from Roseburg, Oregon. All solid high school players who spent the last year or two up in Twin Falls.