Keith Clanton schedules visit to USF

[Vega]

6-8 Keith Clanton of Orlando made his official visit to South Florida over the weekend and has one trip left to make before he makes a decision. Clanton has visited USC and will visit Central Florida this coming weekend.

Clanton's mother made the trip with him to Tampa and said her son enjoyed it. "It was a good visit," Clanton's mother said, "but he did not make up his mind there. South Carolina is still on the radar. We had a good in home visit with coach (Darrin) Horn. We really love him and his staff and feel good about all of them. We feel comfortable around them. But he's not saying anything on a favorite."

All the head coaches have had their in home visits and USC assistant Scott Cherry was to visit Clanton Sunday, but there was a death in Clanton's family, so that visit was scratched.

It's ashame that we weren't able to seal the deal while he was on his trip here. This will be a very nervous wait for Heath and company. To be blunt recruiting has not been going as well as it could have up to this point. We need Clanton and Isaiah Philmore very bad. Philmore is the wing forward we must get along with the Big in Clanton. Heath is still evalurating others guards such as Darrick Brown and Richie Edwards on wheather or not he will offer them a scholarship.

[Vega]

Vega:  One of the other sites said he was at Umass this weekend, so that is why he did not come to USF.  I am not sure that we had offered Riley.  Seems to me that we need two inside guys at this point.  With DoJo, Noriega, Dumars and Mercer it seems like we have enough players that can do pretty much what we need at the wing for now.

I sure hope we can reel in Clanton and perhaps Fillmore since I have heard of any other bigs that we are after.

Normal

Riley visited umass on Sept.12th, he was suppose to be here this past weekend.

We very much offered him a scolarship and we wanted him very bad.

Normal Coach Heath is telling you what he needs by the guys he offered and tried to schedule campus visits with. You don't try to get kids to visit if you are not serious about them.

Just recently Heath offered 6-5 G/F Earnest Ross, 6-6 G/F Freddie Riley, and 6-2 G Ramon Galloway. All three have eithered visted or was scheduled to visit but never came. There are others but those are three that come to mind since Dumars and Noriega have commited to USF. Heath has also offered 6ft SG Lamont "Momo" Jones who may or may not come in for a visit.

That clearly shows That Heath doesn't look at neither Noriega or Dumars as nothing more than guys that can come off the bench and be potential zone busters and 3pt shooters. Honestly they shouldn't get more then 8-10 minutes a game for us. If they are legit 3pt threats then they will have served their purpose. They are good role players that we had to get but they are not starters at this point. Now one of those guys could develop into a Stephon Curry or Chris Lofton which would be great, but that is rare. We need future starters and on paper Riley and Ross would have been that for us. Both guys have the potential to play on the next level and we will need a couple of those type players on our roster.

However it is like you said Mercer and Jones will be here this year and the next, which is good and we can go out and find their replacements in the class of 2010. I can tell you that Heath has found a couple of real good ones in the Baltimore area. We have Gilchrist and by good faith we may get Philmore, throw in the influence of Woody and we may have a real shot at getting some good players out of that area now and in the future.

BTW Givon Crump is scheduled to visit next weekend so we will see if he honors his official trip. He is a 6-7 WF that can really fill it up.

[Vega]

Givon Crump has no plans to visit USF after all. He has it down to Oregan St, Baylor, and Rutgers. He will visit the Scarlett Knights on Oct. 14. He wants to take a long look at the Big East team before making his decision. Crump was scheduled to visit USF this coming weekend.

We now USF just Clanton and Philmore currently on the list as players that can play on the high D-1 level. I think we have 4 scholarships to give. There is a big center named Ruslan Peteev that USF is checking in on. There is another 7ft center that list USF but because of grade issues he can't take visits right now. He is looking at a spring decision. He's a good player but is very thin right now.

USF basketball recruiting is starting to remind me of a boxing match where one guy is getting his butt kicked the entire fight but he still has a puncher's chance to come out on top.

Hopfully some good news is not to far off for Stan and the boys. Get Clanton, Philmore, and have Gilcrhist granted his eligiblity to play this up coming season would qualify as good news.

BTW Philmore has it down to GW, USF, Towson ???, and USF. Yes he list Towson as a possible choice.

[NormalBull]

Vega:  Trust me, I was not questioning Riley's abilities, but what I wondered about was his status as far as qualifying for admission to USF.  Stan got burned in this last recruiting cycle with the three guys that did not make it in.  I would think he might want to make sure that there was at least a reasonable chance for admission before signing a kid in the early period.  I have no idea where Riley is as far as meeting entrance requirements, I was just throwing that out there because I believe one of the recruiting sites had us not offering Riley.  I realize that the accuracy of these sites is always questionable, but that is what I was thinking.

In Heath's uptempo style of play, one can never have enough athletic wings that can run and jump.

Normal

[Vega]

Vega:  Trust me, I was not questioning Riley's abilities, but what I wondered about was his status as far as qualifying for admission to USF.  Stan got burned in this last recruiting cycle with the three guys that did not make it in.  I would think he might want to make sure that there was at least a reasonable chance for admission before signing a kid in the early period.  I have no idea where Riley is as far as meeting entrance requirements, I was just throwing that out there because I believe one of the recruiting sites had us not offering Riley.  I realize that the accuracy of these sites is always questionable, but that is what I was thinking.

In Heath's uptempo style of play, one can never have enough athletic wings that can run and jump.

Normal

That's an excellant point about Riley may or may not meeting USF's academic requirements. I have to believe that Heath felt it was a better than 50% chance Riley would be able to get into S. Florida since he turned up the heat on his recruitment at the beginning of this past summer. You are right to raise the question because Riley did fell to get into FAU before he went off to Hargrave and reclassified as an 09 prospect.

I think Heath will have a much better chance of getting a stud SG in the next class because there will be a clear opening left by the departure of Mercer. Nobody they could have signed would play over Mercer or Jones in the backcourt.

Now Isaiah Philmore is our top athletic wing player that can come here and have a good to great career. The more I read and hear about this guy the more I like him. He is much like Clanton meaning he is a winner. Both of these guys play the whole game filling up the box score. While Riley is a great offense player he lacks the effort on the defensive end. That won't be a problem with Clanton or Philmore. Even if their offensive is off in a game they are still doing other things that help their team win. I really hope that we can land both of these prospects.

I do wonder if Heath will go harder after Richie Edwards and Darrick Brown with both Crump and Riley no longer options for USF. Edwards isn't a bad player at all and I'm trying to find out more about Brown as well as big center Ruslan Peteev.

[NormalBull]

Vega, someone mentioned that HCC has a 7' 3" guy named Dahl that was at the Kansas game and that we are interested in this guy.  I don't know anything about him.  Of course, 7' 3" sounds good.....if he can rebound and play D I would be interested.

Normal

[Velcro]

I saw 3 hoops players at the Pitt game... one was Ajayi and he was leading around 2 recruits... not sure who those recruits were.

But both were at least 6'9.

[Vega]

Vega, someone mentioned that HCC has a 7' 3" guy named Dahl that was at the Kansas game and that we are interested in this guy.  I don't know anything about him.  Of course, 7' 3" sounds good.....if he can rebound and play D I would be interested.

Normal

Marial Dhal was the backup to Teeng Akol and John Riek at Our Savior in NY. Like Akol he transferred to HCC in order to gain eligibility at a 4 year school like USF where he is very familiar with. Heath has been recruiting him since 2007 and Marial has visited USF on several occasions. Our Savior in NY had 6-11 Teeng Akol, 7-1 John Riek, 7-2 Marial Dhal, and 7-5 Ring Ayeul, what a frontline they had.

Marial Dhal from Sudan is an athletic post player who has great hands, blocks shots very easily, rebounds, and is a very good passer. He also has the ability to knock down long range jumpers.

[Velcro]

Sounds like a perfect fit for the Heath system.

[KB]

I saw 3 hoops players at the Pitt game... one was Ajayi and he was leading around 2 recruits... not sure who those recruits were.

But both were at least 6'9.

Keith Clanton, Justin Leemow, Jordon Dumars