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Award-winning columnist Tom Archdeacon — an old-school storyteller in a brand-new venue — writes about sports, the city, southwest Ohio and anything else that catches his fancy… or yours.Home > Blogs > Through the Arch > Archives > 2009 > July > 17
Friday, July 17, 2009
Is Ohio State recruit trying to get Staten to “de-commit” to UD?
Word is that Ohio State continues — covertly and overtly — to recruit Juwan Staten, who has verbally committed to the University of Dayton for the 2010 - 2011 season.
Other schools are still trying to lure Staten away from the Flyers as well, but none more so than OSU, which according to ESPNU already has the top recruiting class in the nation for 2010.
One of those future Bucks, 6-foot-9, 262-pound Columbus Northland senior Jared Sullinger — Ohio’s Mr. Basketball last season and ESPNU’s No. 4 college prospect in the nation — plays with Staten this summer on their Ohio All Red team, one of the best AAU teams in the nation.
All-Ohio Red just won the Nike Peach Jam U-17 championship in Augusta , Ga. by defeating the Philadelphia/South Jersey based Team Final, 62-53. Sullinger had 19 points and 21 rebounds. Staten had 13 points.
Sullinger is regularly in Staten’s ear trying to get him to “de-commit to UD and come to Ohio State” said one person close to the situation. He’s really trying to get him to back out of his Dayton agreement and become a Buckeye.
Of course that often goes on among basketball guys and Staten does it himself.
Uncommitted Jefferson High senior Adreian Payne — No. 26 on the ESPNU national list and still uncommitted — said Staten has often tried coaxing him not only to come to UD, but to transfer out of Jefferson High this upcoming season and join him at Oak Hill Academy.
Staten left Thurgood Marshall High this spring to play his final prep season at the national basketball power in Virginia.
Staten admitted last spring that regardless of his UD commitment, schools like West Virginia, Cincinnati and especially Ohio State were still vigorously recruiting him.
As Payne — who’s also on All-Ohio Red — explained it last month, Ohio State has all kinds of ways of getting word to you through second-hand sources and they do so quite well.
Along with Sullinger, the Bucks 2010 class has another top 10 prospect in small forward DeShaun Thomas — out of Bishop Luers in Fort Wayne — and there’s also Top 50 player Jordan Sibert, a 6-4 shooting guard from Cincinnati Princeton (another Ohio All Red player) and 6-5 guard Lenzelle Smith of Zion-Benton Township in Illinois.
As for Staten, he is ranked as the 41st-best player overall in the nation at Rivals.com and he’s 43rd on the ESPNU list.
While he and his family say he is still firmly committed to UD — and I think he’ll stand up to his word and become a Dayton Flyer — the whispers to “de-commit” will continue…covertly and overtly.
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