SoCalHoops Recruiting News

Chris Duhon Looking Unlikely
For UCLA--(Aug. 11, 1999)

UCLA spent a good part of the summer following point guard sensation Chris Duhon (6'-2" Sr. PG) from Salmen HS in Slidell, Louisiana.  The UCLA coaches were spotted at several of his games in Vegas, and it's no secret that they coveted him as one of their top point guard prospects, along with Andre Barrett who recently committed to Seton Hall.  Most pundits and those who also followed Chris Duhon and the New Orleans Jazz around also believed that UCLA was a longshot, and that Duhon was favoring Duke.  In fact as early as June, he was reported to be a "lock" for Coach K,  who was also spotted at several of the Jazz games at the adidas Las Vegas Big Time that we attended. But what a lot of other people didn't figure on was the involvement of Kentucky.

Now it seems that Chris is down to two schools, and one of them is not UCLA.  Recruiting USA is now reporting that Duhon will take two visits: One,  to Duke on September 25, and the second, to Kentucky on October 15, for the Wildcats' version of "Midnight Madness" (actually, Kentucky will probably be using a different term for the event, now that some schmuck from the East Coast purported to trademark the term "Midnight Madness" and last year threatened to sue any school that infringed. . . indeed, a number of schools went to different names, but that's a different story and we digress. . . ).  The Recruiting USA guys are making their predictions (we won't tell you what that is. . . you'll have to get a subscription to find out), but lots of others have their own picks, and you can all make your own uneducated guesses.  Hey, a 50-50 shot is pretty good when you're trying to figure out what some 17 year old is going to do, right?

According to the HoopScoop, Duhon will be leaving (or has already left) for a tournament in Europe with a team sponsored by Bret Bearup, who happens to be an NBA agent.  Eddie Fogler, who coached the team of high school all-stars last year has been replaced by Terry Stotts, who is currently an assistant coach in the NBA with the Bucks, and he reportedly has no ties to either of the schools that are recruiting Duhon.  In addition to Duhon, the team includes two incoming college freshmen, Josh Kroenke (6'-5" Fr. SG/SF) who will attend Missouri, and Derrick Zimmerman (6'-3" Fr. SG) from Monroe, Louisiana. The team will have no shortage of point guards, with both Duhon and another former ULCA recruiting target, Andre Barrett (5'-9" Sr. PG) from Rice in New York  and Imari Sawyer (6'-2" Sr. PG) from MLK in Chicago.  Others on the roster include Bernard Robinson (6'-6" Sr. SF) from New Hampton (Prep)NH, Andre Brown (6'-8" Sr. F) from Leo HS in Chicago, Glen Worley (6'-8" Sr. F) from West HS in Iowa City, Jared Reiner (6'-11" Sr. C) from Tripp Delmont HS in South Dakota, and Derek Dawes (6'-10" Sr. F) from Cottonwood HS in Salt Lake City. Duhon and the team  will reportedly leave this week (they may have left yesterday or Monday, we're not sure) for a 10-day tour of  France, Holland and Belgium According to Clark Francis, the team is called "Team Pro Trust," which bears a striking resemblance to the name of Bearup's company: "Pro Trust."

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