jacoby atako commits

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SoCalHoops Recruiting News

Jacoby Atako Commits To
UC Santa Barbara--(Oct. 5, 1999)

Recruiting USA, which is of course the recruiting arm of the Los Angeles Rockfish was first in announcing that Jacoby Atako (6'-1" Sr. PG/SG) from Santa Monica has given a verbal commitment to coach Bob Williams of UCSB, and it's only right that they should make the announcment first because Jacoby is a Rockfish player. Atako has been a huge target for Santa Barbara all summer, and the coaching staff has been very high on him for at least the last year.

Atako selected UC Santa Barbara over Utah, Santa Clara, Long Beach State and UC Riverside. He's played with the Rockfish traveling teams for the past two summers, and most recently he and Russell Lakey both combined to lead the Rockfish to the "Great Eight" at the adidas Las Vegas Big Time this summer, and Atako also reportedly held EBO's DeShawn Stevenson to just 8 points in a game this summer (which we didn't see, but we heard it was at the adidas "Great Eight" tournament up in Berkeley the last week of July, which featured Oakland Slam N Jam, EBO and several other top teams).

Atako is an excellent scoring point guard with tremendous defensive skills, a great jump shot, perhaps a more straight up and down player than his backcourt Rockfish-mate Lakey, who himself is being recruited by Loyola Marymount, Santa Clara, and most of the Ivy League. Atako is very quick, strong, and has great hands, makes good court decisions and has tremendous vision and excellent passing skills, and he will penetrate or pull up for the jumper in the lane.

His recruitment to Santa Barbara gives the Gauchos another potent and slightly different scoring alternative to the the abilities of the two top guards recruited by Williams last season, B.J. Ward (6'-0" Fr. PG) and former high school teammate Nick Jones (6'-4" Fr. SG), both from Santa Clara High School; we understand that both of them are considering redshirting this season, and next season, with Atako in the backcourt with Jones and Ward, and possibly Branduinn Fullove at the shooting guard spot as well, Santa Barbara will have a great combination of guards, capable of scoring and presenting tremendous defensive pressure. Jacoby is a very big "get" for the Gauchos.

As we've also reported, Santa Barbara is heavily recruiting Branduinn Fullove (6'-5" Sr. SG) from Simi Valley, another excellent shooter with great defensive skills and excellent fundamentals; they were also closely involved with Nick Booker (6'-5" Sr. SG) from the Bishop's School in La Jolla but we're not sure how involved they are with him any more (not that they aren't, just that we haven't heard anything lately), and Williams & Co. have also had an in-home visit with Aerick Sanders (6'-9" Sr. F/C) from Gardena Serra who has them in addition to about 6 or 7 others. We're not certain how many rides Santa Barbara has left to give this year, but they are definitely looking at picking up at least two more players, a shooting guard/small forward type in the mold of a Fullove, and another big man like Sanders, and if they get them both this will be a great recruiting class for Williams, who is proving that in addition to winning a National Championship at Davis at the D-II level, he can get it done in D-I.