patterson visits

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SoCalHoops Recruiting News

More Weekend Visits: Andre Patterson
At Michigan This Weekend--(September 29, 2000)

Greg Hicks of PWH confirms what we heard from Andre Patterson (6'-7" Sr. SF/SG) of LA Washington Prep HS this past Monday night at the Fullcourt Press Fall Hoops Showcase at Long Beach Millikan, and that is that he will be visiting Michigan this weekend. We don't think he's terribly serious about Michigan, but that's just our supposition, perhaps not entirely justified. If we had to guess though from what we've heard from sources and from our discussions with him, it's "officially" three: UCLA, Kentucky, and Michigan, and probably in that order. He will visit UCLA next weekend, i.e., October 6th and then Kentucky the following weekend, October 13-15.

We saw Andre play at the Fullcourt Press Fall Hoops Showcase on Monday night, and the coaches from UCLA and Kentucky were out to watch him, and right now we'd have to say that those two are probably running about neck and neck from what we can tell as the leaders. Andre also told us that despite rumors, he is not transferring high schools and will be staying at LA Washington HS this year.

Andre is originally from Indiana and this past summer played for the Municipal Gardens team at the Big Time, a very good team from the midwest, and with some strong ties to the Michigan/Indiana region, so it's also probably not fair to entirely discount Michigan. But the west coast speculation is that UCLA will offer Patterson, but won't ask him to sign until the spring after he has a solid academic year to be sure that he's qualified. One thing that doesn't need much improvement though is Patterson's level of play. Andre played with the Paladins last weekend at the adidas Double Pump Fall Premier Tournament, winning the consolation championship, and probably the best game we saw him have was in the quarterfinals against a West Coast Academy team with Josh Childress and Eddie Draughn on it, and he and Josh, both very similar players in many ways, were throwing 'bo's, jawing at each other, and hitting threes in each other's faces. A fun game to watch. . . . We can't really say the same about the showcase game we saw Andre playing in Monday night because (a) it was too long, (b) no one played any defense, and (c) no one did anything except throw long outlets and dunk, which really got a bit old after a while. But we're betting that with Josh Childress pretty much eliminating UCLA from consideration, and vice versa, that Andre Patterson will probably become a Bruin, if he's not a Wolverine or Wildcat first.