SoCalHoops Recruiting News

HS Stuff, College Recruiting Stuff,
& Coaching Stuff--(April 17, 2001)

We hear things. . . . and these are a few of the things we're hearing:

High School Confidential

Clovis West To Take A Hit?   Obviously, this is big news.  What is?  The news that CIF Central Section Commissioner Jerry Laird has reportedly received confirmation in the form of "evidence" from the Dominican Republic that Clovis West's former top power forward Charlie Rodriguez (6'-8" PF) who helped lead the Hustlin' Eagles to two section championships and the State Championship game a year ago, was actually 19 years old when he enrolled at Clovis West three years ago, which would make him 22 years old now, way too old to be a high school junior.   Obviously it will, if true, result in the forfeiture of all of the games he played in, and in turn, will result in the forfeiture of CW's titles.     The story was reported in today's Fresno Bee, not in the sports section, but on the front page.  Frankly, we're getting sick of hearing about stuff like this. . . .we'll separately summarize more of the details on this breaking story later, but in the meantime it's newsworthy, so we thought we'd pass along the link to the Bee's story.

College Recruiting Stuff

Cory Starks (6'-5" Sr. G/F) who attended Notre Dame Prep School (the same prep school where Pepperdine's Glenn McGowan prepped following his graduation from Venice HS), has been offered and is considering a scholarship from Cal Poly.  He'd be a great addition to the Mustangs.

Ryan Reyes (6'-2" Sr. PG) from Artesia impressed a lot of coaches the other night at Dinos Trigonis' "Fullcourt Press Senior Showcase".   According to friends who attended the event (and we couldn't be there due to prior business commitments--we had a "meeting" at midcourt at Staples for the final Clipper home game), there were 20 to 30 coaches in attendance and one of Reyes' biggest admirers was new Portland head coach Michael Holton,  and Reyes is reported to be considering an offer from the Pilots.

Cody Pearson (6'-4" Sr. G/F) from Sherman Oaks Notre Dame (not to be confused with Notre Dame Prep) is reportedly receiving interest from Cal Poly and Pepperdine.  Pearson was offered by Cal State Fullerton last fall, but reportedly wanted to wait and reopened his recruiting last fall.

College Coaching Stuff

Coaching Carousel: Congratulations to Coach Blaine Taylor who gets his first NCAA D-I head coaching job in three seasons, moving from his assistant's spot at Stanford to the head job at Old Dominion.  Taylor previously was a head coach at Montana before moving to Stanford to coach with Mike Montgomery. He replaces Jeff Capel, who resigned March 5 after seven seasons at Old Dominion.  It is Taylor's first head coaching job since he left Montana in 1998.  Taylor's teams compiled a 142-65 record in his seven seasons at Montana, his alma mater. His teams won 20 games five times, reached the NCAA Tournament in 1992 and 1997, and the NIT in 1995. He was Big Sky Conference Coach of the Year in 1992. He played at Montana from 1977-81, the last three seasons for head coach Mike Montgomery, and later spent three seasons as an assistant to Montgomery before he became head coach at Stanford.  Blaine was one of the top recruiters for Stanford, and we're sure he'll do a great job at OD.  No word yet on his replacement at Stanford.

More Recruiting Stuff

Rockfish Championship:   We spent all of last weekend watching some great basketball, including the championship game of the Rockfish Spring League, a heartbreaker of a game for IEBP and a great win for the Rockfish Swordfish who pulled off the win in a buzzer beater game which saw Levi Steinmetz (6'-2" Sr. SG) hit a three pointer at the horn.  The Rockfish Swordfish were led by  Marc Holmquist (5'-9 Jr PG) from Saugus,  Peter McCaslin (6’-1" Sr. PG) from Chadwick, Steinmetz from Ridgecrest Burroughs, Sterling Stegall (6’2 So. SG) from Canoga Park HS,  De’Von Thomas (6’-2 So G) from Muir, Jeremy Haggerty (6’-4" Jr. G) from Canyon, Tony Moore (6'-5" Jr. G/F) from Dorsey, Joel Smith (6'-6" Jr. G/F) from Lompoc, Michael Wilds (6'-7" Sr. F) from Dorsey, David Patten (6'-9" Jr. F), Matt Salinas (6'-9" Jr. F) from Sonora, and USC-signee Rory O'Neil (6'-11" Sr. C) from Ridgecrest Burroughs.

IEBP was led by Blake Walker (6'-5" Sr. F) from Redemption Christian Academy in NYC (aka "the Bakery"),  Kris Maxey (6'-3" Sr. G) from Temescal Canyon, Joe Buller (6'-3" Sr. PG) from Chaparral, Kevin Pinkney (6'-9" Sr. F) from Colton, Marvin Lea (6'-3" Jr. G) from Riverside MLK, Corey McJimson (6'-6" Jr. F) from Fontana, Johnny Dukes (6'-8" Jr. F) from Eisenhower,Deon Simpson (5'-8" So. G) from Santiago, Donovan Morris (6'4 Jr G) from Cajon, and Sean Marshall (6'-5" So. F) from Eisenhower.

We don't have the time to mention all of the other players who played well over the last weekend, and we're still working on some more in-depth stuff on the Pump Easter Tournament and the RSL players. 

More RSL:  Finally, don't forget that this Friday night at LA City College, the Rockfish will feature their two top All-Star games.   The first one will be the Top 48 Game, which will tip-off at 6:30 p.m. at LACC, followed by the Top 24 Game at 8:00 p.m.   We'll have the complete rosters shortly. 

See you there.

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