travon bryant to announce tomorrow

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SoCalHoops Recruiting News

Travon Bryant To Announce His College
Decision Tomorrow At LB Jordan--(May 1, 2000)

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Photo Courtesy Larry Gray
UltraStudentAthletes Online

Travon Bryant (6'-8" Sr. PF), of Long Beach Jordan, and one of only two McDonald's All-American selections from California this year, intends to hold a press conference tomorrow, Tuesday May 2, 2000 on the campus of Long Beach Jordan High School, at which time it is anticipated he will announce his college decision. Travon was, last we checked, down to three schools: Cal Berkely, Missouri, and Kansas.

We spoke with Dinos Trigonis last Friday while he was in Columbia, Missouri on the campus of the University of Missouri hosting the 1st Annual "Show Me Shootout", a tournament held this past Friday, Saturday and Sunday featuring some of the top travel teams and players from around the country, and it was during that conversation that Dinos let us know that Travon would announce his decision tomorrow. The press conference is set to be held at the library on the campus of Long Beach Jordan High School. Dinos wasn't exactly clear about the time of the conference, but said he believed it would take place "around noon."

Most observers believe that Travon will announce for Missouri tomorrow. Here's the conventional wisdom on the selection process as we understand it:

First, with respect to Kansas: Travon has repeatedly said that Kansas has pretty much stopped calling him over the last few months, and that same statement has been reported on virtually every recruiting website as justification for saying that Travon has "eliminated" Kansas from consideration. Of course, Travon has also said that he has not eliminated Kansas from consideration, just that they've not been calling him much. But likewise, it's probably not a good sign, at least from the athlete's perspective when a school which says it wants him initially, stops calling. Our predicition: 40-60 for Kansas at this point.

Second, with respect to Cal: The Bears just this past week signed their second big man by getting an LOI from
Saulius Kuzminskas (6-11 Fr. F/C) from Vilnius, Lithuania. Just days before, Cal also signed Gabriel Hughes (6'-10" Gr. C), from Bishop Montgomery High School (who has been attending a prep school this past year). Gabriel is the younger brother of current Cal sophomore center Solomon Hughes, and the conventional wisdom is that Travon may believe he won't see enough playing time with all this depth at the post and on the block. . . . likewise, when Travon wavered in making a commitment, Cal may have sensed that they were in trouble with Travon and went instead with someone who was ready to make the commitment to them. Either way, last year Cal had used 11 of its possible 13 scholarships (the Bears had 5 walk-ons as well, for a 16-member team roster). They will have two open up with graduating seniors, and will use one for Ryan Forehan-Kelly (one of the walk-ons) which means that they still should have had ample schollies to sign Travon (even after the two recent signings) but they have a very crowded roster, and Ben Braun is known to say that everyone including the walk-ons has a chance to play, another fact probably not lost on Travon. . . Our guess is that Cal is a real long-shot, with maybe a 30-70 shot.

Finally, with respect to Missouri: The feeling is perhaps that Missouri has stuck with him the longest without signing anyone else at his position, and they've really only got one other guy already on the roster at Travon's natural position, Tajudeen Soyoye (6'-9" Jr. F) who has one more year to play. Likewise, Travon will continue to have the opportunity to play with his Belmont Shore travel team road-buddy, Wesley Stokes (5'-10" Sr. PG) next season by signing at Missouri (that is if both of them are eligible to play as freshmen. . . thus far neither of them has achieved a sufficiently high SAT/ACT/GPA ratio, and there is some concern that Travon might not even have a high enough core GPA for initial freshmen eligibility.). . . Still, all things considered, most people are betting on Missouri being the odds on choice, and with Dinos making public pronouncements (see below) we'd say there's at least an 80% chance it will be Missouri.

Guess we'll see tomorrow. . .

Finally, we came across the follwing article from the Columbia (Missouri) Tribune on Travon's impending announcement:

Bryant to announce decision
California prep star looks to be a Tiger.

By BOB THOMPSON
of the Tribune’s staff

McDonald’s All-American Travon Bryant, of Long Beach, Calif., is expected to announce that he will become a member of the Missouri Tigers basketball team when he makes his college choice public at a press conference tomorrow at Jordan High School.

Bryant had reportedly made his mind up to attend MU last week, but later denied the reports.

The 6-foot-9 forward would be the Tigers’ fourth signee in next year’s freshman class when he signs a letter of intent.

"It looks like it’s going to be Missouri," said his summer coach Dinos Trigonis, who was in town this weekend for the Show-Me Shootout. "They were real patient with him where as the others got tired of waiting and either backed off or signed other players."

If he does indeed sign with Missouri, Bryant will join Ricky Paulding, Arthur Johnson, and Wesley Stokes in coach Quin Snyder’s first full recruiting class at MU. Some analysts are already ranking the group among the top recruiting classes in the nation.

Trigonis says that Bryant delayed his decision to carefully weigh all the factors in making his selection. He eventually narrowed his choices to Cal and Missouri.

"Travon’s a real student of the game," Trigonis said. "He’s a lot more basketball smart than most kids coming out. He really spent a lot of time looking in to coaching styles, depth charts, and traditions of all the schools he was considering."