Coach: Center Sutton lining up USF visit

With two commitments in the past three days, it's a busy time for USF's basketball recruiting efforts, so I've got a few more nuggets to offer as Stan Heath works to line up more visits that could yield more commitments from the three or more scholarships still available this spring.

First, an update on Maryland prep center Maurice Sutton, fresh off a state championship. He'll visit Boston College this weekend, according to Largo High coach Lewis Howard. From there, he's working up to schedule official campus visits to USF, Seton Hall, Villanova and Kentucky, though not necessarily in that order. There's three weekends before the spring signing period officially starts, but it runs from April 16 to May 21, so there's no huge hurry.

Heath still doesn't have a true center on his 2008-09 roster, so that position has to be a priority, even with three power forwards now lined up in returning senior B.J. Ajayi and incoming freshmen Eladio Espinosa and Gene Teague. Ajayi could certainly play center next season and will probably see time at both positions.

Speaking of centers, I got a call on Easter (!) from Chicago prep center Steve Goins -- I'd called several days earlier -- and he'd just returned from a campus visit to Texas-Corpus Christi. Goins, you'll remember, was once scheduled to visit USF the weekend of March 8, then it got bumped a week, then bumped again, with the curious explanation that the visit would have coincided with USF's spring break.

Anyhow, Goins said he hasn't heard from USF since the last time his campus visit was postponed, though he said he's still interested in making a trip to Tampa, as well as Connecticut. Again, college coaches don't forget to call recruits they're actively recruiting, so I'm going to infer that he's not a high priority right now. Not to say he couldn't wind up at USF; just doesn't seem to be anything pressing.

Not to tease, but there's another brand-new name I'm making a bunch of calls on. I'll get an update as soon as I can piece everything together. I'll give Heath and his staff credit for casting a wide net and not putting all their -- no, can't use that one so close to Easter ... for making contact with a wide range of recruits. They're keeping me busy.

-- Yes, if you watched really closely, you saw former USF center Frane Markusovic play in American's first-round loss to Tennessee in the NCAA Tournament. Markusovic made it into the boxscore for playing "0+" minutes -- if I can get a stat guy to explain to me the delineation between 0+ minutes and 1 minute, I'd actually be curious to know. Of course, we're happy for Frane.

-- Hey, one more USF tie to the NCAA tourney: Former USF women's assistant Amy Wright made the NCAA as an assistant at Western Kentucky. Wright spent a year at Texas A&M before joining the 'Toppers.

-- Several of you who watched the first-round games at the St. Pete Times Forum (ching!) have asked me about Western Kentucky's 6-foot-9, 260-pound freshman D.J. Magley, who went to Bradenton Christian. "How'd USF let him get away?" is the usual question I get. I'm working on an answer, but a few initial responses: First, he signed early in November 2006, so it's a Robert McCullum question and not a Stan Heath question. Second, it sure looks like he wanted to get away from home a bit, as the three other schools WKU lists him as considering were Iowa, Oklahoma and Purdue. His bio does show Central Florida making a run at him. Not that he's setting the world on fire, but to see a local kid at a position of need, he's someone who could have helped this year's Bulls.

Comments

[AGW]

As I have stated before once we got Eugene Teague, Goins became less of a priority. Same goes for Simmons now that we have McMillan committed. I REALLY want Sutton. He and Flowers would be huge for us. I also would love to have Patillo, his year at Southern Idaho was great as was his transition to the wing. He is the top of top-shelf athlete we need in Tampa. Now if another scholarship opens up (Williams or Chin or both) then Goins, Simmons, Akol, another JUCO, or the person you hinted about would be welcomed.

[AGW]

Shaping up to be a great class if we get these other recruits that are supposedly coming in for visits. This is where Stan Heath will make his mark on USF and get us out of the basement.

[AGW]

G.A. I hope that post will be coming in the morning because I will be going crazy scouring the net trying to find out who you may be talking about. Please update us as quick as possible like always. Also, it was nice meeting you after the ND game in the press room.

[AGW]

G.A.- Will Flowers be coming in for a visit? Who do you feel will end up signing as of today?

[Paisa el Toro]

G.A., another fine job in reporting. Keep up the great work.

[The Champ]

Goins is a fool in the sense of what was he thinking?

He is the example of what sometimes happen to a prospect that goes from being a no name to being courted by D-1 schools.

Goins greed and ego needs to be a lesson to any and all recruits that are not of high profile status, don't think more of yourself then you actually are and don't try to play these college coaches for fools.

As I wrote on one of these blogs not to long ago, Heath has been burned by players holding out that are far more acclaimed then Goins.This newer version of Heath is not going to let that happen again and certainly not from a Steve Goins.

In truth Goins should have been committed to USF a couple of weeks ago when he should have been visiting the campus.Heath and staff went out and found a guy in Eugene Teague that they obvious rate just as high as Goins and thus went in that direction leaving Mr. Goins behind.

Now Goins is hoping for an opening at UCONN or that USF gives him him 1 more chance.It is a real possibilty that he ends up at Chicago St or a school like Texas A&M CC.In the words of the late great Red Foxx, "You big dummy."