andre patterson commits

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SoCalHoops Recruiting News

UCLA: Andre Patterson
Commits To UCLA--(Oct. 9, 2000)

Pac-West Hoops first reported it last night, and then others got on the bandwagon, but it appears that Andre Patterson (6'-7" Sr. F) who attends LA Washington HS (also now known as Washington Prep), has given a verbal commitment to the UCLA Bruins. Patterson, a native of Indiana who moved here this past summer, had visited Michigan last weekend, and was considering offers from several other schools. He played this past summer for the Municipal Gardens team from Indiana.

His is the third verbal commitment for the Bruins this fall. The first was Michael Fey (6'-10" Sr. C) from Capital HS in Olympia, Washington, and the second was Cedric Bozeman (6'-5" Sr. G/F) from Mater Dei.

There had been speculation as late as two weeks ago that Andre would not be formally offered by UCLA, or at least he would be urged to hold off on committing until the spring, when his academic situation might be considered to be more stable and admittance to UCLA would be more assured. Obviously, those rumors proved to be just that, i.e., rumors, and it now appears that Andre's academics, in terms of his GPA should be sufficient for admission to UCLA. Mike Miller writes on the BruinZone message forum that Andre's grades are fine, but the open question is his SAT score. According to Michael, he now needs a 900 to qualify.

UCLA now has two additional scholarships to give for the class of 2001, and right now the two favorites would have to be Aaron Miles (6'-1" Sr. PG) from Portland Jefferson HS, who is also considering Kansas and has scheduled a visit there for this weekend's midnight madness, and Dijon Thompson (6'-7" Sr. F) from Redondo Union, who is reportedly considering either UCLA or Arizona. Also still apparently in the running for UCLA is Jamal Sampson (6'-11" Sr. C) from Mater Dei, who took a visit to Cal this past weekend. Many think that Cal is currently the leader for Jamal, particularly since his friend and teammate Ricky Porter has said to a number of people that he's "committed" to Cal (although no one has offered him a scholarship, it's thought that his would be a guaranteed walk-on spot the first year with a chance to earn a scholarship, much like Ryan Forehan-Kelly did this past year), but some other bizzare reports keep surfacing, including word that Jamal may be interested in UConn as well. Frank Burlison's column this past weekend had some interesting things to say about Jamal's recruiting, including the following cryptic message:

Sampson was scheduled to visit Berkeley this weekend, and to take a trip to Lawrence for the University of Kansas' Late Night with Roy start-of-practice bash on Oct. 13-14. But why do so many people I know with a clue think he will ultimately be wearing a UCLA uniform?

Now some may say that Frank thinks Jamal will ultimately sign with the Bruins, or at the very least, he's saying that a lot of people whose opinion's he respects think that Jamal will still be a Bruin. . . . guess we'll all find out soon.

But will the commitment of Andre stimulate anyone else to hurry up and commit? We're not sure, but we doubt it. Dijon is known to be weighing the options very carefully, and his parents are actively involved in the decision, and we don't think he'll be rushed into anything he doesn't feel completely comfortable with. Likewise, Miles has way too many options, and we doubt that either he or Sampson will make a decision prior to this weekend's visits to Kansas.

Also in the running for UCLA are a number of guys who many believe are considered backup options for the Bruin staff, including Chad Bell (6'-11" Sr. C) from LA Westchester, Isaiah Fox (6'-8 Sr. PF) who appears to be down to Arizona and Cal, but would certainly consider UCLA if they were to offer, and Chuck Hayes (6'-7" Sr. PF) from Modesto Christian. But the biggest "dark-horse" in this race for a UCLA big man might be David Harrison (6'-11" Sr. C) from Brentwood HS, in Brentwood, Tennessee (which is a suburb just outside of Nashville).

Finally, Clark Francis at HoopScoop speculates that all might not be lost for UCLA and Josh Childress. Clark writes:

"If you will recall, Childress recently eliminated the Bruins, but now he's having second thoughts. One of his brothers has been pushing Stanford, while another has been pushing Kansas, but he's always wanted to go to UCLA. And this won't be the first time in recent years that a player has eliminated the Bruins, but later added them back onto the list (i.e. Jason Kapono, who is now at UCLA). We suspect that Harrison will go Vanderbilt, but he's always had UCLA high on his list and, if by some chance, they strike out Sampson, he would be the best big man still available."

Frankly, we don't think there's much chance of UCLA with Childress, and since we suspect that Clark's California sources may want to have Dijon Thompson wind up at Arizona, we're betting that this report of Childress gaining some renewed interest in UCLA is just a bit of interesting misdirection. We think a combination of Childress, Bozeman and Thompson at UCLA would be an interesting combination, especially with Fey and Sampson, but it's really a longshot, at least in our view, particularly since on the floor Childress and Patterson have been pretty fierce opponents and the last time they played against each other at the Pump Fall Premier tournament, there was no love lost between them. . . tons of talent, but certainly no love lost, and we just don't see them together, at least not by choice because the chemistry would just not seem to be there for that.