osborne report

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SoCalHoops Recruiting News

Chris Osborne: An Update
From Arizona--(Aug. 31, 1999)

Fans of LA Westchester High, the team which two years ago won the State D-I championship with Tony Bland (Syracuse), David Bluthenthal (USC), Brandon Granville (USC), Lou Wright (transferred to East Memphis), and Chris Osborne (ASU-signee), who graduated this past June, will be interested in this one.

Our friend Jerry Norley, who writes for WestCoastHoops covering all things Arizona, who also occasionally writes stuff for SuperDevils.com (the Rivals.com site for ASU), spotted this one last week in the Arizona Republic. Apparently, Chris Osborne (6'-9" Fr. PF) from Westchester failed to qualify, and is enrolling at Mesa Community College rather than at Arizona State. Evidently Chris failed to achieve a qualifying score/gpa combination under the NCAA's Prop. 16 initial freshman-eligibility guidelines. Norley's article says that Osborne will enroll at Mesa "as he prepares to take the SAT/ACT again to try to gain his eligibility for Rob Evans and the ASU Sun Devils," but if he actually enrolls as a full-time student, we wouldn't hold out any hope that Chris will be with the Devils any sooner than two years, if he ever plays there, due to the NCAA transfer rules which provide that in order to transfer from a two year college, Chris will either have to attend a JC for two years or earn his AA degree.

Of course, Chris could be doing what's known as "gray-shirting" which means that he's signed up for less than a full load of courses, (i.e., he won't be a full-time student) and this is probably what's happening because as a "gray-shirt" he'd still be allowed to practice with the team during the fall (just not play with them in games). According to Norley's article, "if he doesn't gain his eligibility with the Sun Devils for the Spring semester" Osborne "will suit up for the MCC Thunderbirds, taking over for Ernest Brown who decided to play for Indian Hills JC in Iowa."

We're the first to admit that we don't know squat about Arizona JC hoops, but according to Norley, "if Osborne ends up playing for MCC he'll be joining one of the best JC programs in the state. Last year coach Joedy Gardner saw his guard Thomas Watkins sign with Iowa State and forward Nick Greene sign with the Univ. of San Diego. Osborne will certainly flourish under Gardner, as Brown did, and end up being one of the top big men in the JC ranks."