three to visit usc

socalogo.gif (8739 bytes)
SoCalHoops Recruiting News

Three SoCal Prospects Slated To
Visit USC Last Week--(Aug. 27, 2001)

According to Dinos Trigonis at FullcourtPress.net, Kurtis Townsed, USC's recently hired assistant ( Silvey Dominguez and Dave Miller both left, has been pretty successful in his recruiting efforts with some of the top players in SoCal, and this past Friday he arranged an unofficial campus visit for some of the top players in the junior class, all of whom also happened to play for Rick Issac's H-Squad team. The three who were planning to visit were Ekene Ibekwe (6’9” Jr. F) from Carson HS, Marcus Williams (6'-2" Jr. PG) from Crenshaw, and Kenton Paulino (6'-2" Postgrad PG) who graduated this past year from Fremont HS but who is slated to attend Maine Central Institute, one of the top prep schools in terms of turning out basketball talent year after year. Paulino's club coach, Rick Issacs, also told Dinos that Paulino also visited the University of San Diego's Brad Holland on Tuesday of last week. We didn't hear anyone mention it, but we would also expect that Ekene's brother, senior Onye Ibekewe (6'-6" Sr. F/G) from Crenshaw, was slated to accompany the H-Squad players on the visit to USC. While USC is probably not recruiting Onye, the Trojans still have three scholarships for next year, so it's possible that they might make a move for the senior Ibekewe brother as a way of insuring a tie-in to the younger brother. Issacs also reportedly told Dinos that thus far only UTEP and San Jose State have shown any overt recruiting interest in Onye, so unless he signs with one of those schools, we wouldn't expect him to sign in the early November signing period. If he doesn't sign early, he will likely be a hot property in the spring. We happen to agree with Isaacs that Onye is a very tough competitor who plays hard every minute he's on the floor, and we're fairly surprised that his recruiting hasn't been move active. Both Ibekewe brothers have already taken an unofficial this summer (along with several other H-Squad players, including Marcus Williams) to UCLA, so it's a safe bet that both cross-town rivals are looking to target the younger Ekene Ibekwe, who had a solid ABCD camp early in July. We had a chance to watch both Ekene and Onye in Las Vegas, and while H-Squad struggled early in pool play, they were tremendous when it came time to step up their games, in particular the game against the Pump N Run team, where both played great.