SoCalHoops Recruiting News

Pac-10 News & Notes:   Sensley Denied,
Ramasar Leaving(?), Withers Visits--(Aug. 31, 2001)

The past few days have been hectic in the Pac-10 compared to the past few months where almost nothing has happened.  Here's some interesting news which we've picked up around the 'net in the past two days:

Julian Sensely NCAA Appeal Denied--Not Eligible At Cal

The NCAA just turned down an appeal from Cal to admit Julian Sensley (6'-9" PF).  Julian failed to qualify on his SAT score.  He had hoped to become eligible as a partial-qualifier, but the NCAA has said "no" and therefore he will not enroll at Cal.  Here's the official press release from Cal

NCAA Turns Down Sensley Eligibility Appeal
6-9 forward plans to file personal appeal to become qualifier.

Aug. 30, 2001

Julian Sensley Photo cropped from Recruiting USA Original Photo (c) Mark Mayemura/R-USA

BERKELEY - The NCAA informed Cal today that it has denied the school's petition for an initial eligibility waiver for basketball recruit Julian Sensley.  However, Sensley said he plans to file a personal appeal with the NCAA in hopes of attaining qualifier status. 

"My goal is to pursue all avenues available to me to become eligible and be at Cal," Sensley said.  Sensley, a 6-9, 230-pound forward from Kailua, Hawaii, achieved the necessary high school GPA, but fell just short of attaining the required SAT score, making him a partial qualifier under NCAA rules. As a result of today's ruling, he will not be enrolled at Cal this term. 

If his appeal is approved this fall, though, Sensley could become eligible to play as early as the first game after final exams, on Dec. 21 against Mount St. Mary's. He would then enroll at Cal for the spring semester.  "Julian has not wavered on his commitment to Cal and he intends to pursue his options to become a full qualifier," head coach Ben Braun said.

Sensley attended high school through his junior year in Hawaii (the same high school that former Palm Springs-area La Quinta HS guard Skyler Wilson transferred to and played at his senior year).  Julian then was "reclassified" as a junior again two years ago, and he's attended a prep school for the past two years.  He played club travel ball with the LA Rockfish.   Julian's commitment to Cal was originally thought to be based in large part on his relationship with former Cal assistant Scott Beeton, who is now the head coach at SUNY-Albany.  There is sure to be much buzz about this on the Cal message boards at CyberBears.org, one of the best sites for news about Berkeley basketball.

UCLA's Todd Ramasar Leaving Team?

Here's one we haven't been able to verify since we first read about it on the Bruinzone Message forum this morning, and there may be no truth to this at all, but on the off-chance there is, it's surely newsworthy.   There are a series of messages posted over there to the effect that Todd Ramasar, who is currently listed as a walk-on member of the UCLA men's basketball team, has decided not to play during his senior season.    There hasn't been any official word on this subject, and, as noted, Ramasar continues to be listed on the official team roster at the UCLA Men's basketball website.  We'll try to get some further confirmation on this one over the weekend. Maybe Jim Downs, who used to be a good source of UCLA news will update his site and let us all in on what's happening in Bruin land.

USC Getting Official Visit This Weekend From Curtis Withers--

According to BibbyBaby's "Unofficial USCHoops" website, "USC will try and lure another bigtime recruit west when 6-8 PF Curtis Withers from West Charlotte HS will take an official visit to USC on September 1."

BibbyBaby notes that,

"USC has a legit chance in landing this potential replacement for Sam Clancy. Withers favors USC and Charlotte over Alabama and Florida State. He only has one official visit (USC) scheduled but has and will visit Charlotte unofficially.  Withers had a very good showing in Las Vegas this summer when he overpowered and overshadowed several higher profile bigmen. He is ranked as high as #30 by Hoopchoop, but is around 75-90 is some other publications. If he played the whole summer at the level he did in Vegas he would be closer to a top 40 recruit. He is expected to sign with a school this fall. If USC can answer and calm some of his concerns about the distance from home, they could be in the driver's seat to land him."

There's also a great link on the BibbyBaby message board to a website for the Curtis Withers' club team, the Carolina Aces. It's one of the best club and travel team websites we've seen lately (nice design, logical layout, and really functional links with tons of info), and they've got a special section devoted to each of their players, including quite a few videos of Withers.  It's worth taking a look at the videos, because to most fans who follow travel ball here in the west, Withers will be a complete mystery.  Even though the Aces were sponsored and outfitted by adidas, they played on what has traditionally been considered either "neutral" turf or on the Nike circuit, but they didn't attend any adidas-sponsored events (e.g., the Aces played at the Bob Gibbons’ T.O.C in May, at the Orlando Super Showcase in July--held at the same time as the adidas Big Time--, and at the AAU Nationals.  Thus, those of us who followed most of the local travel stuff on the adidas circuit have never seen Curtis, and from what we can tell from the video clips, he's got a lot of potential.

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