recruiting notes

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SoCalHoops Recruiting News

The Latest Recruiting Gossip, News,
Notes & Stuff From All Over--(Sept. 30, 2002)

As we mentioned in the story about Wesley Washington (6'-3" Sr. G), Dinos Trigonis last night sent us a report via e-mail which featured a lot of news about a lot of different players, not just about Wesley and Cal.....Some his news was really "new" stuff, some not so new. You can find Dino's observations in his weekly "Trigonis Tidbits" at FullcourtPress.net, but we'll also pass a few of them along (in somewhat modified form), as well as some other things we've picked up along the trail.

As we reported last week, Ekene Ibekewe (6'-9" Sr. F/C) one of the top rated post prospects on the West Coast, took an official visit to USC this weekend. We predicted that USC will get a commitment from Ekene (or did we?). Dinos says, "The Trojans are considered to be the frontrunner for Ibekwe by reliable sources with Maryland and Kansas still in the running."

We also reported that Trevor Ariza (6'-8" Sr. F) from Westchester took an official visit to Georgia this past weekend, and that Ariza was scheduled to visit Florida and then will likely visit UCLA. Dinos notes that Trevor's visit to Florida will be for that school's "version of 'Mid-Night Madness' next month" and he also confirms that UCLA is "likely to receive Ariza’s fifth and final official visit…"

And in addition to hearing from Dinos about this one, Etop Udo Ema, who coaches the Compton Magic travel team and has a pretty solid bead on Arizona and JUCO kids, also tells us that former Compton Centennial standout Antonio Griffin (6'-6" So. F) from Scottsdale JC in Arizona has verbally committed to Florida State. Griffin was reported to have been impressive this past July at Jerry Mullen’s JUCO Showcase in Tulsa OK. According to Dinos, Antonio "....picked the Seminoles over Oregon State, Pittsburgh, Fresno State, New Mexico and Louisiana Tech."

Did anyone else catch the slightly different slant that each of the three local major daily SoCal newspapers (Daily News, LA Times, and OC Register) gave to the story of UCLA's Andre Patterson's eligibility (or lack thereof) over the weekend? The O.C. Register ran a positive, almost upbeat story, making Andre's situation sound like very good news indeed, with the headline, "UCLA's Patterson closer to return," and the body of the story by writer Lee Jenkins which noted that "His academic progress makes it possible for him to rejoin the team in December....UCLA ruled Friday that sophomore forward Andre Patterson made enough academic progress in summer school to warrant consideration for the winter quarter."

The LA Times took a slightly more neutral tone: "Patterson Decision Expected Today," the headline declared, and sportswriter Steve Henson writing for the Times noted that "UCLA forward Andre Patterson received his summer school grades Thursday, but the school has not determined whether he made enough progress to keep alive his hopes of being eligible after the fall quarter. A decision is expected today. Patterson, a sophomore, is ineligible for the fall. However, he could gain eligibility in time to face Kansas in the fifth game of the season, Dec. 21, provided he made enough progress in summer school and posts good grades this fall at Santa Monica City College."

And the Daily News? How about this for a headline: "Patterson Flunks Out of UCLA." We'd link to the story, but the DN either didn't run the story on their website, or else they pulled it from the internet after seeing the LA Time and OC Register versions. Staff writer Billy Witz though noted that "UCLA sophomore forward Andre Patterson has flunked out of school and will attend Santa Monica College this fall in the hope of being readmitted to UCLA and re-joing the team in late December, the school announced Friday." The paper also went into far more detail than the other two did about the particulars of Patterson's situation, noting that "Patterson, who did not pass 36 unites before his second year as required by the NCAA must meet that benchmark as well as show UCLA he is making sufficient academic progress to be readmistted a school official said."

A few more recruiting notes:

We also hear from Jon Ralston, who runs the Big West Message Board website, as well as the UOP fan-based website on TheInsider's.com, who says that the University of Pacific Tigers may have picked up a verbal from former Palisades HS guard Marko Mihailovic (6'-5" So. G), who played last season and is still at Santa Monica CC for one more year. Marko has always been a quality shooter, with excellent size and speed and he will bring some excellent skills to Bob Thomason's program. Marko received some interest out of high school from several D-I programs, and was reportedly offered a scholarship in the fall of his senior year by Cal State Fullerton, but decided to wait.

Both Mitch Platt (6'-8" Sr. F) from Las Vegas, Nevada, and Ray Shafer (6'-11" Sr. C) from Alaska, have committed to the Oregon Ducks. Platt, who was being recruited by a couple of SoCal programs (e.g., San Diego State and a couple of Big West schools), who played for the Pump N Run All-Stars team this past spring but was prevented from playing with them again this summer because of the NCAA's stupid 100-mile rule, committed to Oregon and Ernie Kent, joining point guard Aaron Brooks as the most recent player who won't be coming to SoCal except during swings through Pac-10 league play. Mitch, a big, strong, mobile power forward, was also being recruited by Utah's Rick Majerus, Bobby Knight at Texas Tech, and Rob Evans at Arizona State, the latter of whom just received a verbal commtment last Thursday from one of Texas' top prospects, Chris Low, so we don't feel too bad for the Sun Devils missing out on Platt. And after watching their football team absolutely whack Stanford this past weekend (man, was that embarrassing, or what?), we really don't feel sorry for ASU at all any more. Shafer, also played with a SoCal-based team in the spring, but was prevented from doing so also by the NCAA's 100-mile rule, but it didn't matter as he was injured and didn't play at all during the summer exposure period. Shafer is a big, strong post player was also being recruited by San Diego State and Arizona State, and reportedly was also on Gonzaga's list of priority players, but hey, the Zags have more than enough big men, right?

Dinos Trigonis also tells us that Ruben Boykin (6'-7" Sr. F) from University HS in Los Angeles, "is receiving interest from Wyoming, San Francisco, Colorado State, Long Beach State, Cal Poly, UC-Santa Barbara, Pepperdine and Notre Dame." We are not certain if he has any visits set but that's a pretty long and interesting list.

We also hear that Mikel Watson (6’1" Sr. PG) from El Camino HS in Oceanside, is still being recruiting by "Wyoming, San Francisco, Boise State, Nevada and Long Beach State." Watson played this past summer on and off with both Pump N Run and with Ollie Goulston's San Diego-based squad, and is generally thought to be a solid guard prospect.

Lastly on the recruiting front, we don't know a thing about this guy, but we've heard that Sean Hawkins (6'-6" So. G/F) from Columbus State JC in Ohio, took an official visit to Long Beach this past weekend.