SoCalHoops Recruiting News

Justin Davis Backs Out Of Cal Commitment?
UCLA Or Stanford? Who Knows...--(Oct. 20, 1998)

Recruiting USA and Jim Downs at UCLA both are reporting that Justin Davis (6'-9" Sr. PF) from Alameda St. Joseph's Notre Dame has reportedly backed out of his commitment to the University of California at Berkeley.   According to Downs, Davis is once again involved with UCLA, and Recruiting USA doesn't mention UCLA, but is predicting that Davis will sign with Stanford.

We were unable to contact Justin directly today, and so we went to the next best source for confirmation, Davis' high school coach, Gordie Johnson at Alameda St. Joe's.  Gordie confirmed for us that in fact "Davis has opened up his recruiting again."  Apparently he felt he committed too early, and wanted to take a look at what some of the other Pac-10 schools, and even some outside the Pac-10 had to offer. 

According to coach Johnson, Justin is still looking at UCLA, Stanford and Colorado.  "He's opened the door to consider other offers, and will even evaluate some others, if he decides not to sign early," according to Johnson. And while Recruiting USA is reporting that Colorado is reportedly out of the picture because they've "already fulfilled their need for post players," we hear that they may still be interested in Davis.

For those who haven't seen him play, Davis is a huge workhorse, very athletic and one of the best inside players in the state if not all of the west coast. By opening up his recruitment, this now apparently paves the way for either LaVelle Blanchard (6'-7" Sr. F) from Ann Arbor, Michigan, or Dalron Johnson (6'-9" Sr. F) from Verbum Dei, both top national recruits, to commit to Cal.

As for the details of why Justin opened up his recruiting again after previously committing to Cal, it has been reported by Recruiting USA that Justin called the Cal coaches earlier in the month and told them he was not certain about his decision; Coach Braun then reportedly called him yesterday and told him that if he was uncertain, Cal would no longer hold a spot open for him as they had other people they were looking at. Johnson simply told us that "Justin felt a little uncomfortable committing this early, and the decision that he would not verbal to Cal was his and the Cal coaches agreed."

And while Recruiting USA is predicting Davis will attend Stanford, we think it would be just as likely that he'd attend UCLA, particularly if the Bruins are unable to land Carlos Boozer (or maybe even if they are able to land him.)  Boozer reportedly will visit the UCLA campus during the weekend of December 11-13; he'll return to Alaska for the Juneau-Douglas Crimson Bears Capital City Classic tournament from December 27-31 in Juneau.  Given Boozer's stated intention to not sign during the early signing period, and further given the fact that, as reported by Frank Burlison in today's Orange County Register, Boozer wants to wait and see which coach he can develop the best relationship, one similar to his relationship with his   high school coach George Houston, this might not have UCLA feeling very comfortable at the moment, if for no other reason than that there are two other schools still heavily involved, and of course, until Carlos commits, anything might happen, even some other schools getting involved late.   According to Burlison's report, the other two involved currently are Mike Krzyzewski at Duke and Mike Jarvis at St. John's.

According to Frank Burlison,  Boozer has also tentatively scheduled visits to Duke first the weekend of November 6-8, followed by St. John's the weekend of the 13th-15th.

As for Davis and UCLA, recall that UCLA was previously involved with Justin Davis, and Lavin reportedly spent more than an hour on the phone with his mother on several occasions during the summer, so the fact that UCLA continues to be interested should come as no surprise to anyone.  Of course, coach Lavin has also made no secret of the fact that UCLA has made Boozer the Bruins' No. 1 priority for next year, but if there is any wavering, we'd expect the Bruins to offer Davis immediately, and maybe they'll offer him anyway, since there should be at least three scholarships remaining next year (if they don't give one to Moose Bailey, and or if, as has been speculated repeatedly, the Bruins also have another player transfer out like Kevin Daley did this year.  So with three open slots, if the Bruins can pick up   Davis, Boozer and Rush,  that would be a pretty amazing recruiting effort considering the sheer strength of the current Bruin roster with last year's haul.

And what about Davis at Stanford? How likely is that?  Stanford will already have plenty of depth at the post position for at least the next several years, with Jarron Collins (6'-9" So. F);  brother Jason Collins (6'-10" Fr. C) who redshirted after suffering a knee injury which is completely healed; Mark "Mad Dog" Madsen (6'-8" Jr. F), and Ryan Mendez (6'-7" Jr. F).  Admittedly, Stanford will be losing Mark Seaton (6'-9" Sr. F), Peter Sauer (6'-7" Sr. F) and Tim Young (7'-1" Sr. C) after this year, but Stanford has already received verbal commitments from Curtis Borchardt (6'-11" Sr. C) from Washington, and Casey Jacobsen (6'-6" Sr. SG/SF), and it looks like Mike Dunleavy (6'-7" Sr. SG/SF) could sign with Stanford as well.  Stanford should have five scholarships to give next year (since Chris Weems and Arthur Lee will also be leaving to graduation) and with the additional commitment of Julius Barnes (6'-1" Sr. PG) from Rowland to Stanford, that now makes three definite committments for the Cardinal.   Assuming that Davis and Dunleavy both accepted, there would be just enough room for them both. But the bigger question would be the amount of playing time that Davis would be likely to see, at least for the first few years, a situation which might not be much better at UCLA either.

At this moment, coach Johnson didn't indicate that Justin had any preferences, only that he wanted to continue to look around and consider all of his options.  As between UCLA and Stanford, we'd call it "pick 'em" at this point, and we'd make no predictions as in our view, it could go either way.

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