Oldsmar Christian guard commits to North Fla.

Oldsmar Christian guard Jordan Fair spent last season in the shadows of playmaking seniors David Minaya and Leo Liriano, who both earned scholarships at Tennessee Tech.

Now Fair has found a Division I home of his own. Fair has orally committed to North Florida of the Atlantic Sun Conference. The Ospreys finished 3-26 last season, their second since moving to D-I.

“They play an up-tempo style and I’m more of an up-tempo guard,” Fair said. “There’s a good playing-time situation, and I really liked the coaches.”

Fair averaged 12 points and five assists last season for the Eagles, who finished 15-10 and lost in the first round of the Class A region playoffs.

COMING UP: Check out Thursday's Times, which takes a look at some of Pinellas County's top Division-I recruits to watch this upcoming season...

-- JOE SMITH

joesmith@sptimes.com

Comments

[CoachB]

Jordan, congratulations best of luck in college keep working hard.

[Hoops Junkie...]

Let's see if J Fair can stay at one college for more than one year!

p.s. - you'd better learn how to play defense if you're going to make it at the next level....

north florida coaches will lose their jobs within the next few months now. 12 points 5 assists not his averages but his career highs

he never made it at this level,truely the biggest baby to disgrace the court,this is a player even tony vasquez would pass on.

[Got A ?]

Why are you hating on Jordan Fair? He has worked very hard and received a D1 Scholarship, which has been his dream since he was play in youth basketball leagues. Why can't you be happy for what he has accomplished? If you are a fan of Pinellas County basketball then you should be proud to have another county player achieve his dream and play at the college level. Wish him luck in stead of hating on him. Or maybe you are one of the players below, or a parent of one of these kids who didnt play at a high school or for a coach that cared about his future and helped this young man work torward his goal and accomplish his goal. How is it that several of these players played for the great county coaches of Phil Price, Dan Wright, Randy Shuman and Jack Coit but didnt get a D1 Scholarship to play at the next level and a 6'0 point guard who avg 12pts and 5ast, "while playing no D" and "he never made it at this level,truely the biggest baby to disgrace the court,this is a player even tony vasquez would pass on" will be at the next level?

2007
Justin Morin/Clearwater High - 2nd Team
Nehemiah Simpkins/Boca Ciega - 3rd Team
Mike Helm/Largo High School - 3rd Team
Bill Hobach/Seminole - 3rd Team
Josh Garcia/East Lake - 3rd Team

2006
Trayce Macon/Boca Ciega 1st Team
Nate Johnson/Largo High School 1st Team
Tim Cavanaugh/Osceola 2nd Team
Peter Alexandrou/Countryside 3rd Team
Grady Jorgensen/St Pete Catholic 3rd Team

2005
Darius Hart/Clearwater 1st Team
Sean Morrison/Lakewood 1st Team
Mario Telfair/Lakewood 2nd Team
Brian Blakely/St Pete 2nd Team
Trevor Lee/Clearwater 2nd Team
Nasson Borden/Gibbs 3rd Team
Dion Burton/Lakewood 3rd Team
Enoris Sly/Boca Ciega 3rd Team

2004
Tommy Lampley/Admiral Farragut 1st Team
Ricky Pena/St Pete 1st Team
Travis Karto/SPC 2nd Team
Coryon Ross/Lakewood 2nd Team
Trevor Bing/Largo 2nd Team
Fred Marshall/Largo 3rd Team

2002
Marquel Brooks/Boca Ciega 1st Team
Willie Brooks/Boca Ciega 2nd Team
Matt Walker/Seminole 2nd Team
Greg Cummings/East Lake 2nd Team
Rob Martin/Dixie 2nd Team
Jason White/St Pete 2nd Team
Deon Troupe/North Side 3rd Team
DeAngelo Woodie/Gibbs 3rd Team
Maurice Robinson/Lakewood 3rd Team

2001
Alvin Gunter/Largo 1st Team
Evontae Royal/Bogie 1st Team
Norris Anderson/ Lakewood 1st Team
Kevin Farrell/SPC 1st Team
Lliam Carroll/Dunedin 2nd Team
Tory Holmes/Largo 2nd Team
Caleb McMillen/IRCS 2nd Team
Will Wightman/Countryside 3rd Team
Chase Bodden/Dunedin 3rd Team
Wes Mullens/St Pete 3rd Team
Chris Thomas/East Lake 3rd Team

2000
Sharrod McCree/Boca Ciega 1st Team
Reque Newsome/Dixie 1st Team
Corey Bailey/ East Lake 2nd Team
Jason Helms/Clearwater 2nd Team
Carl Mobley/Dixie Hollins 2nd Team
David Pierce/Boca Ciega 2nd Team
Brian Shields/Clearwater 2nd Team
Dan Dreden/Largo 3rd Team
Kenny Huertas/Countryside 3rd Team
Antonio Thompson/Farragut 3rd Team
Rashad Williams/Lakewood 3rd Team

i agree 100%. Jordan this one is for you. I wish you luck at UNF.

[joe]

North Florida must be hard up for players. Div II schools in the area were not even looking at him because of his attitude on the court. You're right 8:29pm, he is a big cry baby.

What a joke!

Holy cow Got a ? you did your research. Are you a living computer or did Jordan pay you to write that. lol! that is insane how many talented players from this county never ended up making it at the next level... the coach at oldsmar must be doing his job to get these kids schollys. Good luck Jordan, keep working hard.

[Hubie Brown]

"How is it that several of these players played for the great county coachesbut didnt get a D1 Scholarship to play at the next level"

That is a good question but you have to figure in an important factor in recruiting = GRADES and ATTITUDE.
For all the great players out there remember there are thousands of players just like you practicing hard, you must have the grades too. AND FCAT.

[Hubie Brown]

These are the numbers for college hoops, with some astonishing stats.

Mens
D1 4913
D2 4281
D3 6512
Total 15,706

Which means that of all the boys and girls playing high school ball ONLY
3% will play any college ball at any level. Only 1% at the D1 level.

Take it a step futher...

28 NBA teams with 12 man rosters = 336 players. And since only 1 or 2 rosters spots open each year, only 28 to 56 players can come into the league. They're competing with European players, players from previous years who didn't make it, CBA, USBL, D-League, etc. The odds are enormous.

Go from high school, roughly 500,000, to the NBA roughly 300, and you get a percentage of 0.0006 that make it from high school to the NBA. After you factor in length of career, the percentage drops even further. For every ten thousand high school players, three will play more than 2 years in the NBA.

Compare:

-About .0007 percent of the population in the USA won at least one million dollars in lotteries or other contest last year

-About .0008 percent of the population earned more than $150,000 with the job description of 'novelist'

-About .0005 percent of the population earned more than $150,000 with the job description of 'poet'

-About .0008 percent of the population earned more than
$150,000 with the job description of 'photographer'

[Numbers from Wall Street Journal.]

[Czone]

If Jordan Fair is D1 then so is Mike Lawrence from Ridgewood. Lawrence is a much better guard then Fair.
And if you didn't know Corey Bailey is at UNLV now and played in the NCAA tourney last year. He over came FCAT and is succeeding.

[Mario Telfair]

I normally don't respond to blogs, however, when it concerns my son and misinformation, I've got to!!! Mario Telfair finished with a 3.2 GPA at Lakewood and a high SAT. Not being connected to a good AAU team going into his senior year caused him not to really receive D1 offers, therefore he went to Santa Fe JC for 2 years and now he's at Troy University which is in the Sun-Belt Conference. Don't always assume negative things about people without really doing your research. PS Good Luck to Jordan

[Coach Ron]

The good news is that this year a significant number of Pinellas' players will receive D1 and D2 scholarships. However, many scholarships are extended prior to the start of their senior seasons. Therefore, players should be ready to commit by November of their senior year before they play one senior season game. Historically, many seniors have made the mistake of waiting and waiting, and then their D1 opportunities are over as colleges sign their roster quotas. Players also make the mistake of relying upon their coaches to secure scholarships. Coaches are underpaid and under-appreciated and need some family time. The parents and the players have the responsibility to make the connections and attend exposure camps to ensure they receive the scholarship offers they desire. The key to earning a scholarship is to begin your training early, play up whenever possible, build your athleticism, grow your basketball IQ, view yourself on tape, develop excellent fundamentals and play only competitive level basketball, locally or nationally. Jordan Fair has improved greatly, and there are many more prospects with ability to compete for those precious and few scholarships from both genders. Frustrated and disillusioned fans should not take out their character weaknesses on prep players. If you are a true fan, then you will rejoice whenever any player from any team receives a D1, D2 or any scholarship offer. You are too caught up in team allegiance to see the big picture of the benefit of a college education for our area youth. From year-to-year, prep athletes can improve so much. Honestly, a great goal would be for our area to produce 25 scholarship athletes each year, which is about a dozen for both genders. We don't have to conform to national averages. Greater Orlando doesn't. Finally, most of the elite players know each other and are friends. Fans who attack the elite players are generally attacking the friends of the other elite players. Let's work together to help the players who do have scholarship potential get better regardless of their school. What do you think?