weekend visits

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SoCalHoops Recruiting News

Weekend Visits: Craig Smith,
Dijon Thompson, Josh Childress--(Sept. 29, 2000)

This weekend, quite a few SoCal guys will be taking official visits.

Fairfax' Craig Smith (6'-8" Sr. PF) will be visiting with UTEP head coach Jason Rabedeaux and assistant coach Eddie Hill. Joining Smith on the trip will be Chuck Hayes of Modesto, who was formerly receiving some attention from UCLA, but that interest seems to have faded a bit and the Bruins don't appear to be in his future any longer. UTEP Coach Hill was out at the Pump Fall Premiere Tournament last weekend and it's no secret that they are out to recruit one or maybe two "bigs" for next year. While UTEP had previously had their sights set on Jason Carter (6'-9" Sr. PF) from Las Vegas Bishop Gorman, with Carter's commitment to the Colorado Buffaloes, Smith and/or Hayes are quickly becoming top priorities. Smith had some truly excellent performances last week, including playing some pretty spectacular post and power forward against Dominguez, and had Evan Burns (6'-7" Jr. SF/PF) not fouled out with about 10 minutes left to play in that game against Dominguez, Fairfax might have been able to pull off the upset. According to a story in today's El Paso Times Online, Smith is also being recruited by Boston College and San Diego State, while Hayes is being recruited still by Kansas and Kentucky.

More Weekend Visits: According to the Daily News and Jim Downs' Bruin Hoop Report , Dijon Thompson (6'-7" Sr. F/G) from Redondo Beach, is visiting UCLA this weekend on an official. According to his club coach, Dinos Trigonis, Dijon is principally down to two schools now, UCLA and Arizona, and UConn, which had shown interest early is fading from consideration at the moment.

And Recruiting USA is reporting that this weekend will also see Stanford getting three official visits: Josh Childress (6'-6" Sr. SG/SF) from Mayfair, Chris Hernandez (6'-2" Sr. PG) from Covis West [he's already committed to Stanford and will sign with the Cardinal next month], and Robert Little (6'-10" Sr. PF/C) from Fairfax, Virginia (man we love his name, one of the great ironies for a guy who weighs in at 270 lbs). We spoke with Childress last weekend at the Pump Fall Premiere tournament, and he told us he's down to three schools: Kansas, Stanford and Arizona. Despite reports to the contrary that his leaders are Kansas and Stanford, Josh specifically told us that he really doesn't have any leaders, and will take visits to all three to help him decide. "I really like all three schools right now, and I just want to take my time making a decision," he told us last Friday night.