Star guard Brooks gives pledge to UO
By RON BELLAMY
The Register-Guard
Aaron Brooks, a senior at Franklin High School in Seattle who is considered one of the best prep point guards in the nation, said Wednesday that he has made an oral commitment to sign a letter of intent with the Oregon men's basketball program in November.
If Brooks keeps that non-binding promise, it will make a huge statement about the impact of Oregon's progress - demonstrated by last season's Pac-10 Conference championship and berth in the Elite Eight of the NCAA Tournament - and about its future.
Brooks will be the most highly regarded national-level recruit signed by Oregon coach Ernie Kent - even more highly rated as a high school prospect than Oregon's current star point guard, Luke Ridnour, who, like Brooks, is from the state of Washington.
Not only will the Ducks have again pulled a national-caliber point guard recruit out of the Washington Huskies' back yard, they will have beaten UCLA for an out-of-state athlete the Bruins dearly want, and at a position that is vital for Oregon's up-tempo, share-the-ball style of offense.
"They went head-to-head with UCLA and they beat a high-profile school who, when they want somebody, usually gets them," said Clark Francis, editor and publisher of Hoop Scoop Online, based in Louisville, Ky.
"I think that speaks volumes about where the Oregon program is. One of the hardest things, other than to get to the top, is to stay there. I think this helps ensure that Ernie Kent and Oregon will stay there for a long time. ...
"This is a huge get for the University of Oregon."
"It was very tough, but there was something about Oregon, that I couldn't let that scholarship slip away. That's what it really came down to," Brooks said.
Brooks' decision strongly validates Kent's decision to coach the USA Basketball Junior World Championships team in July, even though that duty fell during the important summer recruiting season. Brooks was a member of that team.
UCLA coach Steve Lavin watched Brooks play in USA Junior World team practices in Miami, and followed him to the Junior World Championship qualifying tournament in Isla de Margarita, Venezuela. Also watching in Venezuela was first-year Washington coach Lorenzo Romar.
"It was an opportunity for Ernie," Franklin High School coach Jason Kerr said Wednesday. "He had the ability to show something that none of the other coaches would get - to work with him daily, and focus on the game, and go over his philosophy, which he did with 18 other kids.
"That always plays to an advantage, and that's what happens when Ernie does a good job and earns that position."
Brooks, 6-feet and 165 pounds, averaged 18.7 points, 3.2 rebounds, 7.5 assists and 2.7 steals as a junior, scoring 31 points against powerhouse Garfield in the championship game as Franklin won the KingCo Conference title for the second time in his three seasons. He shot 52.4 percent from the floor last season, and 41.6 percent from three-point range.
Brooks, 17, said he made his decision Tuesday night, choosing Oregon over the Bruins, noting that "the deciding factor was where I wanted to live for four years. I liked the atmosphere there." He said he gave the news to Kent, recruiting in Illinois, over the phone.
"He was happy," Brooks said. "He said he couldn't yell, because he was at his mom's house and she was asleep."
Brooks said playing for Kent in Venezuela was "not that big a factor," but he admitted that "it was cool to play with him. He was a nice guy." Brooks said he liked what he saw of Oregon's style of play last season - "I liked the way they ran" - and likes the Oregon players he's met. He said he's also a good friend of Johnny DuRocher of Bethel High School in Spanaway, who is arguably the best prep quarterback in the state of Washington and who made an oral commitment to the Ducks last May.
Brooks is rated as the 22nd overall high school senior prospect in the nation by Hoop Scoop, and as the No. 5 point guard. By comparison, Francis said he ranked Ridnour in the 40s overall.
"I never thought he was a top-25 player," Francis said of Ridnour. "At that point in his career, there were guys better than him. Now, he's turned out to have great heart and had great coaching and been in a great situation. He's turned out to be one of the best players in college basketball, but that's what he's done since he's arrived, and not what he did as a high school player."
Another publication that scouts basketball recruits, TheInsiders. com, rates Brooks No. 31 in the nation overall, behind two other pure point guards and two combination point-shooting guards.
"He's taken a shooting weakness and turned it into a strength," TheInsiders wrote. "Teams don't back off him anymore. We love his leadership skills and the effort with which he plays."
So does Francis, at Hoop Scoop.
"He's got super quickness, he makes people around him better, he plays smart and plays great defense and does what an up-tempo point guard does," Francis said. "In Webster's Illustrated Dictionary, under up-tempo small point guard, his picture should be there. ...
"If UCLA gets Aaron Brooks, they can win a national championship. Without Aaron Brooks, they're not necessarily a top-20 team, because they need someone to make everyone else better."
Kerr, the Franklin coach, described his senior-to-be as "the ultimate floor leader, basically due to the way he's carried himself. He's started since he was a freshman. He's always led his teammates and his teams in a manner that many high school kids don't. When it comes to basketball, he's got a maturity beyond his years.
"Off the floor, he's a bundle of energy, who is always center stage and having a lot of fun. He's a really happy kid."
Brooks, who has patterned his game after former Pac-10 stars Jason Kidd and Kevin Johnson, made his commitment to Oregon without making an official visit, which is scheduled the weekend after next. However, he visited unofficially over the weekend of Oregon's home football opener on Aug. 31, in the newly expanded Autzen Stadium, when both of the Ducks' first-round choices from the recent school year - guard Frederick Jones in basketball and football quarterback Joey Harrington - were on hand.
Francis said that it's hard to overstate the value of a recruit such as Brooks.
"If you have a great point guard, you can hide some other things," he said. "If you're missing other pieces to the puzzle and don't have a great point guard, it's harder to hide things."
Francis - who said Ridnour would be making a mistake if he opts for the NBA after his upcoming junior year - said that Brooks would benefit from practicing against Ridnour in the 2003-04 season, which would be Ridnour's senior year. Brooks could play alongside Ridnour in some game situations, and be ready to run the show as Oregon's point guard for three years after that.
Brooks is the first athlete known to have made an oral commitment to the Ducks in this recruiting season. The early signing period is Nov. 13-20, and NCAA rules prohibit coaches from commenting on a recruit until the athlete has signed his letter of intent.......
OH COY!!!!!!!! HUGE NEWS to the oregon hoops program. thats gotta hurt UW fans. Even seattle natives know not to go to in-state schools and journey down south to the call of the DUCKS..QUACK QUACK!!!!!!
how Ya'll feel??
shadow
By RON BELLAMY
The Register-Guard
Aaron Brooks, a senior at Franklin High School in Seattle who is considered one of the best prep point guards in the nation, said Wednesday that he has made an oral commitment to sign a letter of intent with the Oregon men's basketball program in November.
If Brooks keeps that non-binding promise, it will make a huge statement about the impact of Oregon's progress - demonstrated by last season's Pac-10 Conference championship and berth in the Elite Eight of the NCAA Tournament - and about its future.
Brooks will be the most highly regarded national-level recruit signed by Oregon coach Ernie Kent - even more highly rated as a high school prospect than Oregon's current star point guard, Luke Ridnour, who, like Brooks, is from the state of Washington.
Not only will the Ducks have again pulled a national-caliber point guard recruit out of the Washington Huskies' back yard, they will have beaten UCLA for an out-of-state athlete the Bruins dearly want, and at a position that is vital for Oregon's up-tempo, share-the-ball style of offense.
"They went head-to-head with UCLA and they beat a high-profile school who, when they want somebody, usually gets them," said Clark Francis, editor and publisher of Hoop Scoop Online, based in Louisville, Ky.
"I think that speaks volumes about where the Oregon program is. One of the hardest things, other than to get to the top, is to stay there. I think this helps ensure that Ernie Kent and Oregon will stay there for a long time. ...
"This is a huge get for the University of Oregon."
"It was very tough, but there was something about Oregon, that I couldn't let that scholarship slip away. That's what it really came down to," Brooks said.
Brooks' decision strongly validates Kent's decision to coach the USA Basketball Junior World Championships team in July, even though that duty fell during the important summer recruiting season. Brooks was a member of that team.
UCLA coach Steve Lavin watched Brooks play in USA Junior World team practices in Miami, and followed him to the Junior World Championship qualifying tournament in Isla de Margarita, Venezuela. Also watching in Venezuela was first-year Washington coach Lorenzo Romar.
"It was an opportunity for Ernie," Franklin High School coach Jason Kerr said Wednesday. "He had the ability to show something that none of the other coaches would get - to work with him daily, and focus on the game, and go over his philosophy, which he did with 18 other kids.
"That always plays to an advantage, and that's what happens when Ernie does a good job and earns that position."
Brooks, 6-feet and 165 pounds, averaged 18.7 points, 3.2 rebounds, 7.5 assists and 2.7 steals as a junior, scoring 31 points against powerhouse Garfield in the championship game as Franklin won the KingCo Conference title for the second time in his three seasons. He shot 52.4 percent from the floor last season, and 41.6 percent from three-point range.
Brooks, 17, said he made his decision Tuesday night, choosing Oregon over the Bruins, noting that "the deciding factor was where I wanted to live for four years. I liked the atmosphere there." He said he gave the news to Kent, recruiting in Illinois, over the phone.
"He was happy," Brooks said. "He said he couldn't yell, because he was at his mom's house and she was asleep."
Brooks said playing for Kent in Venezuela was "not that big a factor," but he admitted that "it was cool to play with him. He was a nice guy." Brooks said he liked what he saw of Oregon's style of play last season - "I liked the way they ran" - and likes the Oregon players he's met. He said he's also a good friend of Johnny DuRocher of Bethel High School in Spanaway, who is arguably the best prep quarterback in the state of Washington and who made an oral commitment to the Ducks last May.
Brooks is rated as the 22nd overall high school senior prospect in the nation by Hoop Scoop, and as the No. 5 point guard. By comparison, Francis said he ranked Ridnour in the 40s overall.
"I never thought he was a top-25 player," Francis said of Ridnour. "At that point in his career, there were guys better than him. Now, he's turned out to have great heart and had great coaching and been in a great situation. He's turned out to be one of the best players in college basketball, but that's what he's done since he's arrived, and not what he did as a high school player."
Another publication that scouts basketball recruits, TheInsiders. com, rates Brooks No. 31 in the nation overall, behind two other pure point guards and two combination point-shooting guards.
"He's taken a shooting weakness and turned it into a strength," TheInsiders wrote. "Teams don't back off him anymore. We love his leadership skills and the effort with which he plays."
So does Francis, at Hoop Scoop.
"He's got super quickness, he makes people around him better, he plays smart and plays great defense and does what an up-tempo point guard does," Francis said. "In Webster's Illustrated Dictionary, under up-tempo small point guard, his picture should be there. ...
"If UCLA gets Aaron Brooks, they can win a national championship. Without Aaron Brooks, they're not necessarily a top-20 team, because they need someone to make everyone else better."
Kerr, the Franklin coach, described his senior-to-be as "the ultimate floor leader, basically due to the way he's carried himself. He's started since he was a freshman. He's always led his teammates and his teams in a manner that many high school kids don't. When it comes to basketball, he's got a maturity beyond his years.
"Off the floor, he's a bundle of energy, who is always center stage and having a lot of fun. He's a really happy kid."
Brooks, who has patterned his game after former Pac-10 stars Jason Kidd and Kevin Johnson, made his commitment to Oregon without making an official visit, which is scheduled the weekend after next. However, he visited unofficially over the weekend of Oregon's home football opener on Aug. 31, in the newly expanded Autzen Stadium, when both of the Ducks' first-round choices from the recent school year - guard Frederick Jones in basketball and football quarterback Joey Harrington - were on hand.
Francis said that it's hard to overstate the value of a recruit such as Brooks.
"If you have a great point guard, you can hide some other things," he said. "If you're missing other pieces to the puzzle and don't have a great point guard, it's harder to hide things."
Francis - who said Ridnour would be making a mistake if he opts for the NBA after his upcoming junior year - said that Brooks would benefit from practicing against Ridnour in the 2003-04 season, which would be Ridnour's senior year. Brooks could play alongside Ridnour in some game situations, and be ready to run the show as Oregon's point guard for three years after that.
Brooks is the first athlete known to have made an oral commitment to the Ducks in this recruiting season. The early signing period is Nov. 13-20, and NCAA rules prohibit coaches from commenting on a recruit until the athlete has signed his letter of intent.......
OH COY!!!!!!!! HUGE NEWS to the oregon hoops program. thats gotta hurt UW fans. Even seattle natives know not to go to in-state schools and journey down south to the call of the DUCKS..QUACK QUACK!!!!!!
how Ya'll feel??
shadow