Kevin Bookout, the 6-foot-8 forward out of Stroud High School in Oklahoma has chosen to become a Sooner and shun Oklahoma State.
Bookout, a multi-sport standout who is judged by track and field experts to have Olympic gold medal potential will apparently concentrate on basketball for the Sooners. Bookout is a tremendous rebounding force and his commitment will move Oklahoma up into our top 25 ranking of recruiting classes when we do it again after the spring signing period.
The University of North Carolina, which received a commitment from a barndoor halibut last week in the form of 7-foot Damion Grant (Brewster Academy/Wolfeboro, N.H.), has landed a tall tuna in 6-9 Byron Sanders (Harrison Central H.S./Gulfport, Miss.).
Sanders visited North Carolina last weekend and UNC offered him a scholarship at that time. Sanders called his high school coach, Ricky Stone, and committed on Sunday. Both parents were also on the visit. Sanders had flown in and his parents drove to Chapel Hill.
Sanders was not heavily recruited by the big in-state programs, Mississippi State, Mississippi, or Southern Mississippi. For MSU, it was a question of having too many big men in the program -- something that Stone appreciated, but the lack of interest by the other schools was a little confusing.
Sanders has gained 25 pounds in the last year from 190 to 215. Stone feels that Sanders has a good chance to be around 230 by the start of next season. Despite earlier reports we had, Sanders is a good student and a full qualifier.
According to Stone, Sanders is an excellent student who takes accelerated courses and carries a 3.6 GPA. Despite having already received a passing test score of 20 on the ACT, he is taking it again in an attempt to boost it even higher as a matter of personal pride.
Ricky Stone had been an assistant coach at Mississippi State 1991 to 1994 and can offer a good perspective on Sanders.
"He's a young man with high character and is a great fit for North Carolina. What impresses people (college coaches) who came in to see him is he can really run and catch the ball in transition.
"He could possibly play some three down the road. In drills he sometimes out-shoots the guards from the 3-point line. Although shooting is something he needs to improve on, from August to now, he has really improved."
Tulane, South Alabama and McNeese State had all offered Sanders a ride. Miami, Fla., came by to see him, and Louisville and Boston College among others, had called recently. Despite having some relatively inexperienced guards replacing three seniors, Sanders is averaging 13 points per game, almost 13 rebounds per game and over five blocked shots a game.
The University of Tennessee has received an early verbal commitment from 6-4 Dane Bradshaw (White Station H.S./Memphis, Tenn.) a junior (class of 2003), who is expected to be a good role player for the Vols.
In other news, 6-10 Marvin Stone, who was dismissed from the Kentucky team has transferred to hated rival Louisville.
It had appeared that through an athletic department policy that Stone would not be given a release to allow him to be on scholarship at Louisville, in which case, if he wanted to attend badly enough he would have had to pay his own way.
According to rumor however, the Kentucky athletic director "graciously" dropped the decision-making ball in head coach Tubby Smith's lap and Smith showed his class by giving Stone a release so he could be on scholarship at the school of his choice.
Stone, who had been a major disappointment at Kentucky, if you believed all the pre-college hype, will be eligible after the end of the first semester next year and will have just the one season with the 'Ville.
Often looking out of shape and sometimes disinterested, Stone didn't have the skills necessary to be able to impact immediately as most analysts projected. He showed flashes and had some good games, but was far from the dominating post presence Kentucky expected to see on both ends of the floor.
Having chosen to walk on fire by transferring to play under a coach with a strong track record of developing players, Stone is showing that he knows how to tell time.
David Benezra and Mark Mayemura cover the national college basketball recruiting scene at their Recruiting USA (www.recruitingusa.com) website. E-mail at: hoopsusa@mindspring.com or call (818) 783-2244 or (818) 783-2212 for subscription information.
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