childress update

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SoCalHoops Recruiting News

Josh Childress Speaks About
College & Friends --(Sept. 13, 1999)

childress.jpg (11332 bytes) We generally agree with everyone who is saying that it's waaaay too early to be talking about where a player who hasn't even started his junior year in high school will attend college, but with the commitment of Cedric Bozeman to UCLA, the topic takes on new meaning. Yesterday while at the Long Beach Fall Hoops Classic we managed to catch up with Josh Childress (6'-5" Jr. SG) from Mayfair HS in Lakewood (pictured left), during the EBO-EA v. Top Prospects game, who just happens to be best friends and a club teammate of Cedric Bozeman. In fact we managed to catch up with a lot of players at that game, and it seemed like everyone was watching. Most of the guys in this year's senior class not playing in the game all seemed to be congregated in the same general vicinity in the stands. . . Travon Bryant, Brennan Martin, Leroy Dawson, Wesley Stokes, Ben Jacobsen from Omaha, Scottie Stern, Brandon Brooks, and a bunch of younger guys too, juniors, sophs and freshmen, including Errick and Derrick Craven, DeAngelo Collins, Harrison Schaen, David Gale, Kirk Snyder, Matt Short, and on and on. . . everyone wanted to see this game. . . but we digress . . .).

For those not familiar with Josh Childress, he's one 1/4th of the so-called new "Fab 4," players who used to make up the nucleus of Pat Barrett's old SCA teams as pre-high schoolers, and who now sometimes play together on Barrett's SCA/"So.Cal. Hoops" summer team which played at the end of July at the Nike National Summer Championships, but who, more often than not, play for different teams at most of the big high school exposure tournaments. The Fab 4 of course includes Cedric Bozeman (6'-5" Jr. PG/SG) of Mater Dei who recently gave a verbal commitment to UCLA, Tyson Chandler (7'-0" Jr. C/F) of Compton Dominguez (The Hood) who hasn't given a verbal to UCLA (but who has shown up in the locker room on occasion after the games), Jamal Sampson (6'-11" Jr. C/F) from Mater Dei, and Josh Childress, who attends Lakewoood Mayfair; both Sampson and Childress were slated to play for Rich Prospero's "1 Tough School of Basketball" but unfortunately, on Friday, Jamal happened to use his brand new car which he'd only had for about a week to test the laws of physics. . . when an movable object meets an object at rest. . . you get the picture: Jamal had a car accident, and while he wasn't hurt, he didn't play and wasn't in attendance this weekend. . . probably more from embarrassment than anything else. . . .but again, we digress.

There were rumors all summer that Childress and Sampson, who are best friends, had decided to attend whatever college they selected together, and that Cedrick was also part of what had been thought to be the "three amigos"; likewise, speculation was that the three would all either end up at Kansas, or in the event Roy Williams managed to get another job (say at Kentucky, which was the big rumor this past summer at all the camps), that the three, or at least Childress and Sampson would follow along. Not much credence was given to rumors that Tyson would be part of the group.

But all that changed late in August following the unofficial visit of the "Fab 4" to Westwood. Immediately thereafter, the rumor mill really went into overtime, and then it went into hyper-drive when Bozeman, who is possibly the youngest-ever future Bruin to be offered a basketball scholarship before the start of his junior year, committed to UCLA last week.

So yesterday gave us a prime opportunity to ask Josh about many of the rumors now circulating concerning his recruitment, and his feelings on Cedric's commitment and what it might mean for his own future, as well as the future of the other two (Tyson and Jamal). Here's what he told us: "I was pretty surprised when Ced committed. I'm not nearly ready to make any kind of commitment yet. I'm very happy for Ced, and if it's the right thing for him that's great. But it's still way too early for me to know where I want to go to college. I really like UCLA, but I'm gonna keep my eyes open for a while longer. I think his commitment will have some effect on me, but I'm not sure yet what I want to do."

When we asked Josh if he and Jamal still had the same plan to attend school, Josh said, "Yeah, it's a possibility, we've been friends for a long time, and we've talked about going to school together. Who knows though, anything can happen. But it would be nice if we went together."

We saw Josh in a couple of games this past weekend, and he played good, but not great. He is one of the best pure shooters around, and this past summer, he was phenomenal playing for Barrett's SCA team in the San Diego Nike Summer Championships, even if the team as a whole underachieved. This past weekend he showed flashes of brilliance, but like everyone else, he seemed at times to be brushing away the cobwebs that had formed in the past month of no real tournament activity. Still, we think he's going to be one of the best, if not the best pure shooter in his class and one of the top recruits in the country by the time he graduates. And you can bet that despite the uncertainty of college choice at the present time, if he is offered by UCLA, the committment of Cedric Bozeman will have a major impact on him, and the other members of the Fab 4.