allen signs at oxy

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SoCalHoops Recruiting News

J.R. Allen Commits To Occidental College--(April 26, 1999)

Richard "JR" Allen (6'-8" Grad. F) has committed to play at Occidental College next season. JR has been attending Phillips Andover in Massachussets, as a post-graduate student (he graduated from Santa Barbar High last June). He was reportedly recruited by Rice, Notre Dame, Hamilton College, Kings Point Academy, UC San Diego, UC Davis, Pomona, and SMU.

JR posted up his own press release to our message forum, and tech-saavy young man that he is, he thanked just about everyone who's ever been involved with recruiting him or who helped him, including Mike Miller and Rich Meyer (guess SoCalHoops doesn't get any thanks. . . . not that it matters to us), and JR has been doing a "Player Diary" over at WCH for the past two years.

According to JR's press release:

"It came down to SMU and Occidental in March. I decided to major in Film so SMU and Occidental were my 2 best choices. In the end, I felt I did not want to live in the Midwest or the East Coast, but to stay in California. I also felt my career opportunities would be greatly enhanced by taking advantage of Occidental’s relationships with the American Film Institute, Hollywood and their very prestigious alumni in the film industry."

JR also played for George Albanez' adidas sponsored Central California Sports Express (George now has "805 Basketball" a team which has several Santa Barbara players, as well as guys from the Bakersfield and Agoura areas), and the press release also notes that he secured an academic scholarship to Oxy (which is a good thing, because D-III's like Occidental don't give athletic scholarships).

JR is not the only potential signee, and we hear that Darren Tarlow (6'-5" Sr. F) at Chaminade is still considering Occidental too.

Congratulations to Occidental and to JR Allen.